Dec 31, 2014 04:13 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Children born to a parent with a history of attempting suicide are more likely to attempt suicide child's risk of attempting suicide, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh found that a suicide attempt by a parent increased the odds nearly 5-fold that a child would attempt suicide compared to the offspring of people without such histories, HealthDay reported.

Other studies have established that suicidal behavior can run in families, a  2012 study found that young people are more likely to attempt suicide within 2 years of a parent attempting suicide. However, few studies have looked at the pathways by which suicidal behavior is transmitted in families.

For the study, researchers collected data from more than 700 children and adults, between the ages of 10 and 50, of 334 parents with mood disorders. Of those parents, 191, or 57 percent, had also made a suicide attempt.

Six percent of the study participants had made a suicide attempt before participating in the study and 4 percent attempted suicide during the study follow-up.

Researchers found a direct effect of a parent's suicide attempt on a suicide attempt by their child, even after researchers took into account a history of previous suicide attempt by the offspring and a familial transmission of mood disorder.

"Impulsive aggression was an important precursor of mood disorder and could be targeted in interventions designed to prevent youth at high familial risk from making a suicide attempt," the study concludes.

The findings are detailed in JAMA Psychiatry.

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