Early Parent Death and Mental Illness

¹ M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Research Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex

1. A sample of 500 admissions to a Scottish psychiatric hospital has been compared with a sample of similar size matched for age and sex from a local general practice.

2. In the control group a clear relationship exists between age and early parent death, indicating the need for matching for age.

3. The incidence of parent death before age 20 is significantly higher in patients under 40, but not in patients over 40. It is proposed that this may be due to the additional effect of recency in the younger patients.

4. The incidence of parent death before age 10 is significantly higher in the patient group. During this age-period loss of fathers alone and loss by daughters alone are significant.

5. The most marked difference between patients and controls occurs during the 0 to 4 age span, loss of both fathers and mothers alone and loss by daughters alone being significant.

6. The mean parental ages at birth for patients and controls who have suffered early parent death do not differ significantly, suggesting that parent death, and not parental age at birth, is the primary phenomenon.

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