Family History
Many psychiatric disorders have a genetic component and the biological family history is thus relevant. Clinical experience also suggests that a response to treatment may have a genetic component as well. Thus a patient who presents with clinical depression whose mother also suffered from the same disorder and responded well to fluoxetine would indicate that this drug would be more likely to help in the patient's disorder.
Apart from the genetic factors, research has shown that illnesses in the parents such as depression and alcohol abuse are associated with a higher rate of some conditions in the children growing up in that environment. Similar effects are seen with the death of a parent from a protracted illness.
Read more about this topic: Psychiatric History
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