Depression in Relation to Early and Recent Parent Death

¹ M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Research Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex, Department of Mental Health, University of Aberdeen

1. This study is based on a sample of 500 admissions to a Scottish psychiatric hospital. From this sample were extracted groups of depressed and non-depressed patients precisely matched for age.

2. The incidence of parent death occurring during the first 20 years of life and over a period of 20 years before admission was found to be similar in the two groups.

3. From the depressed patients groups of severely depressed and moderately depressed patients, precisely matched for age, were extracted.

4. The incidence of early parent death was significantly higher in the severely depressed group. This was observed to be due to a significant excess of mother deaths.

5. The incidence of recent parent death was significantly higher in the severely depressed group. This was found to be due predominantly to an excess of mother deaths.

6. When patients younger and older than age 40 were compared, the significant excess of recent parent death in the severely depressed patients occurred only in the younger age group.

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