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Several studies reveal a heightened risk for anxiety and other mental disorders in the offspring of patients with panic disorder and other anxiety disorders. Data on the specific type of transmitted disorders, however, are inconsistent. We investigated the specificity of the relationship between parents’ and children’s psychopathology. We assessed current and past mental disorders in 5- to 15-year-old children of patients with panic disorder (CPAN, n = 34), children of parents with no diagnosis of a mental disorder (CCON, n = 30) and children of animal phobics (CPHOB, n = 23) using a structured diagnostic interview according to DSM-III-R criteria. Diagnoses are based on parent as well as child information. CPAN and CPHOB had significantly more often at least one current mental disorder than children of the healthy control parents. Compared to CPHOB and CCON, children of panic patients had significantly more severe diagnoses and more often multiple diagnoses. Furthermore, a higher rate of internalizing anxiety disorders, particularly separation anxiety disorder, was found in CPAN. In contrast, children of animal phobics showed a higher rate of externalizing anxiety disorders. Our results suggest a specific transmission of such disorders that share common features of parental symptomatology.

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Cognitive models of panic disorder have emphasized the role of cognitive distortions in the maintenance of this disorder. Several studies have produced results consistent with this hypothesis, but it is still unclear whether cognitive biases precede anxiety disorders or whether they are a consequence of the disorder. In the present study, we compared children of individuals with panic disorder, children of individuals with animal phobia, and children of normal controls with respect to attentional bias with an emotional Stroop task, which included three types of words: panic-relevant, animal phobia-relevant, and neutral words. Our results revealed that children of panic patients did not show an attentional bias for panic-relevant stimuli. Results will be discussed in the context of theoretical models explaining the etiological factor of cognitive biases for the development of anxiety disorders.