Recent 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 was compared with a sample of similar size from a local general practice.

2. A definite relationship between recent parent death and age was demonstrated in both the patient group and the general population.

3. Expected numbers of recent parent deaths, in relation to age and sex, were calculated from the general population group and compared with the observed numbers in the patient group.

4. When the complete 20 year period before admission was considered, the total number of parent deaths among the psychiatric patients corresponded closely with what would be expected over a comparable period in the general population.

5. Though the number of parent deaths occurring during the most recent ten year period before admission is similar to the expected numbers, a disproportionate and significantly higher number of parent deaths occurred in the patient group during the most recent five years of this period. During the less recent five years there was a significantly smaller number of parent deaths.

6. Within the most recent five year period, a greater than expected number of younger patients were found to have suffered recent father death, and a greater than expected number of older patients were found to have suffered recent mother death.

7. Within the same period parent loss by women was significantly greater than expected.

8. A more definite relationship was found between recent parent death and first admission than re-admission.

9. The marital status of those patients who had suffered recent parent death did not differ significantly from a group, matched for age and sex, who had not.

10. The mean parental ages at birth among patients and controls who suffered recent parent death were found to be similar, suggesting that parent death and not parental age at birth is the primary phenomenon.