Psychiatric illness in the mothers of anxious children.

The authors compared maternal lifetime psychiatric illness for children with separation anxiety disorder and/or overanxious disorder (N = 58) and for children who were psychiatrically disturbed but did not manifest an anxiety or affective disorder (N = 15). The vast majority (83%) of mothers of children with separation anxiety disorder and/or overanxious disorder had a lifetime history of an anxiety disorder. Moreover, over one-half (57%) of the mothers presented with an anxiety disorder at the same time at which their children were seen for similar problems. Both of these rates significantly differed from those obtained for control subjects.