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A study published in the November 2016 issue of the  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) , found that the living arrangements of children whose parents have a serious mental illness differ from the general population. More specifically, the study found that more children of parents with serious mental illness than without lived with a single mother or away from both parents, and more relationships between parents dissolved when parents have a serious mental illness. Among the three disorders of depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, the latter affected family living arrangements the most. "Going through the literature, we were surprised to find that so little research has been conducted about this very important topic. Many studies have examined the children's risk of developing a mental illness, but the basic question of where and with whom children live while growing up has only been addressed superficially," said ...

Loyola Medicine psychiatrist Angelos Halaris, MD, PhD, presented the study at the Fifth International Congress on Psychiatry and the Neurosciences  in Athens, Greece. Dr. Halaris is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. The eight-week study enrolled bipolar adults, aged 18 to 65, who were in the depressive phase of their disease and had not benefitted from an antidepressant. (Bipolar disorder is marked by alternating periods of elation and depression, with depression typically lasting longer.) Patients were randomly assigned to receive the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro®) plus celecoxib or Lexapro plus a placebo. Seventy-eight percent of the patients in the celecoxib group experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in their depression scores, with 63 percent reporting their depression had gone away completely. By comparison, only 45 percent of the placebo group recorded a 50 pe...