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Abstract Background: Offsprings of parents with chronic mental illness are at high risk of various psychiatric disorders as one third of them may develop a severe mental illness by early adulthood and this can affect their quality of life. This study aims to study the rate of occurrence of different psychiatric disorders found in offsprings of patients with schizophrenia, and in offsprings of patients with bipolar disorder type I and to compare psychopathology differences in offsprings of patients with schizophrenia versus the offsprings of patients with bipolar disorder type I. Methods: Patients with their offspring were selected from the outpatient psychiatric clinics at Shebin Elkom Mental Health Hospital, Menofia Governerate, Egypt. 500 offsprings (250 offsprings of parents with schizophrenia , 250 offsprings of parents with bipolar affective disorder type 1). The questionnaires used were Child Behavior Checklist and The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version Results: Assessment of offspring psychiatric symptoms using K-SADS revealed that bipolar offspring group was significantly associated with affective (42 offspring patients, 16.1%), anxiety (27 offspring patients, 11.8%), behavioral (120 offspring patients, 49.6%) and substance misuse (17 offspring patients, 6.1%) disorders compared to schizophrenic offspring group. On the other hand, schizophrenic offspring group was significantly associated with psychotic disorder (41 offspring patients, 16%) compared to bipolar offspring group (8 offspring patients, 3.8%). Conclusion: Offsprings of parents with bipolar disorder type I are at high risk of affective, anxiety , behavioral and substance misuse disorders while offsprings of parents with schizophrenia are at high risk of psychotic disorder. Early screening and intervention may help in decrease impact of psychiatric illness on those offsprings. |