In Laegsgaard et al.’s 2009 study of a mixed group of psychiatric patients in Denmark, a third of parents said they would test their own children only if effective treatment or prophylaxis existed (by diagnosis: anxiety 35%, bipolar disorder 24%, schizophrenia 34%, depression 46%). Another third would test their children notwithstanding treatment possibilities (anxiety 37%, bipolar disorder 31%, schizophrenia 34%, depression 26%). An important motivator for testing children is the belief that parents will feel less guilty about their child’s mental disorder if it were shown to be primarily genetic, a view endorsed by 45% of participants with no significant differences across psychiatric diagnoses.
