I know this is an old question but I have thought about agent orange and its affects on the children of vietnam vets. Since me and my two brothers all have issues with anxiety and depression, I wondered if it was genetic? I have a different mother than my brothers but our problems with anxiety are similar. My dad said he didn't have anxiety issues until after the war. This is why I wonder if its Agent Orange related. Both my brothers were born in the 70's and my oldest brother has the worst anxiety of all three of us. I was born early 80's and mine comes and goes. I think this is worth examination if someone has saw the link. Especially among sibling. If enough children of vets have the same sort of anxiety it means the depression has a source and its chemicals.
Not necessarily. You're also talking about a large number of PTSD sufferers who might have taught their children to be anxious or depressed by example. You're talking about a very particular period of American history, with a lot of tumult and people coming back from a war that many of their own countrymen thought was wrong and were saying so vociferously, while those in favor of the war were moving very far to the right based on already strong anti-communist propaganda in the US and a reaction to what they saw as runaway youth and a stark change in values -- something that continues today and President Trump still is running on. It was a tough time even for those who didn't serve in the war, as choices were forced on which side you were on. Tough times lead to emotional reactions. It was also when, a lot due to the activism of Vietnam vets, that mental illness began to come out of hiding and drugs for it became heavily marketed. It would be very hard for any study to separate out all these variables. There has never been any definitive proof that Agent Orange caused some of what it has been blamed for, but the correlations are so strong it has been accepted by most -- this is also based on what it did to the Vietnamese and the health problems they've suffered, but I'm guessing they have fewer issues with mental health based on the fact virtually no other country claims nearly the same amount of mental illness as is being claimed for the US. There are reasons for this, some based on our non-tribal society -- remember, everyone but the Native Americans came here breaking away from their extended families and long standing historical ties to start over in a place where there were no such communal feelings. So you'd have to unpack a lot. I say study everything, but this would be a very hard one to study. Wonder if it isn't already being studied or has been studied as well, given the number of lawsuits that have been filed about dioxin. I would say it's more likely if you have a family full of anxiety sufferers that the answers lie in the family, maybe genetics but there's no proven link or maybe something in what you saw growing up. It is an interesting question, though -- so many things have happened in our society that can be blamed in part for so much illness in such a rich country, including the anti-breast feeding movement led by Nestles, the overuse of antibiotics, and the tremendous amount of toxic chemicals and non-food we grew up exposed to. All the best.