Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:38:21.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parental Loss by Death in the Early Childhood of Depressed Patients and of their Healthy Siblings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Carlo Perris ,
Sonja Holmgren ,
Lars von Knorring  and
Hjördis Perris
Carlo Perris*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry III & WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Psychiatry, Umeå University Hospital, S–901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Sonja Holmgren
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry III & WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Psychiatry, Umeå University Hospital, S–901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Lars von Knorring
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry III & WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Psychiatry, Umeå University Hospital, S–901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Hjördis Perris
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry III & WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Psychiatry, Umeå University Hospital, S–901 85 Umeå, Sweden
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The incidence of parental loss by death before the age of 15 was investigated in a series of 200 depressed patients, sub-divided into unipolars, bipolars and neurotic-reactive depressives, and in their healthy siblings at risk. The age of onset of illness of patients who had lost a parent before 15 was compared with that of depressed controls. No excess of parental loss at any age was found in any of the patient sub-groups, as compared with their healthy siblings, nor did parental loss affect the age of onset of later depression. The results do not support the assumption that the loss of either parent by death in early childhood is significantly associated with depression in adult life, though parental death may be an important variable for individual patients.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 148 , Issue 2 , February 1986 , pp. 165 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angst, J. (1966) Zur Ätiologie und Nosologie endogener depressiver Psychosen. Monogr. Gesamtgebiete Neurol. Psychiat. Heft. 112. Berlin: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Biktchnell, J. (1972) Early parent death and psychiatric diagnosis. Social Psychiatry, 7, 202–210.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969) Attachment and loss. Vol. 1, Attachment. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973) Attachment and Loss. Vol. 2, Separation: Anxiety and Anger New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980) Attachment and Loss. Vol. 3, Loss: Sadness and Depression. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Brown, F. (1961) Depression and childhood bereavement. Journal of Mental Science, 107, 757–777.Google Scholar
Crook, T. & Eliot, J. (1980) Parental death during childhood and adult depression: A critical review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin. 87, 252–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Elia, G. & Perus, C. (1971) Childhood environment and bipolar and unipolar recurrent depressive psychosis. In depressive States in Childhood and Adolescence—Proceedings of the 4th Union. European Paedopsychiatrie Congress pp 53–62. Stockholm: Almkvist & Wiskell.Google Scholar
d'Elia, G., Perus, C., von Knorring, L. & Perris, C. (1974) Non-psychotic depressive disorders: a ten year follow-up. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Suppl., 225, 173–186.Google Scholar
Forrest, A. D., Fraser, R. H. E. & Priest, R. G. (1965) Environmental factors in depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 245–253.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1917) Mourning and melancholia. In Collected Papers (Vol 4) (ed. Jones, E.) London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Granville-Grossman, K. L. (1968) The early environment in affective disorder. In Recent Developments in Affective Disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry. Special Publication 2, Ashford Kent: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Jacobson, S., Fasman, J. & DiMascio, A. (1975) Deprivation in the childhood of depressed women. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 160, 5–14.Google Scholar
Lloyd, C. (1980) Life events and depressive disorder reviewed: I: Events as predisposing factors—Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 529–535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. (1983) Parental “affectionless control” as an antecedent to adult depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 956–960.Google Scholar
Perris, C. (1966) A study of bipolar and unipolar recurrent depressive psychoses. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Suppl., 194.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Perris, C. (1975) The bipolar unipolar dichotomy and the need for a consistent terminology. Neuropsychobiology, 1, 65–69.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Perris, C. & Perris, H. (1978) Status within the family and early life experiences in patients with affective disorders and cycloid psychosis. Psychiatrica Clinica, 11, 155–162.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Perris, C., Perris, H., Erricsson, U. & von Knorring, L. (1982) The genetics of depression. A family study of unipolar and neurotic-reactive depressed patients. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 232, 137–155.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Perris, C., Eisemann, M., Holmgren, S., von Knorring, L., Oreland, L. & Perris, H. (1985) Morbidity risk for psychiatric disorders in families of probands with affective disorders divided according to levels of platelet MAO activity—Psychiatry Research. In press.Google Scholar
Ppohl, B., Stangl, D. & Tsuang, M. T. (1983) The association between early parental loss and diagnosis in the Iowa 500. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 965–967.Google Scholar
Pitts, F. N., Meyer, J., Brooks, M. & Winokur, G. (1965) Adult psychiatric illness assessed for childhood parental loss and psychiatric illness in family members. American Journal of Psychiatry, 121, Suppl. CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A. (1980) Parental loss in childhood and onset of manic-depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 86–88.Google Scholar
Tennant, C., Bebbington, P. & Hurry, J. (1980) Parental death in childhood and risk of adult depressive disorders. Psychological Medicine, 10, 289–299.Google Scholar
Weinberg, W. (1925) Methoden und Technik der Statistik mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Sozialbiologie. In Handbuch der Sozialen Hygiene und Gesundheitsfürsorge (eds. Gottstein, A., Schlossman, A. & Teleky, L.), Vol I. Berlin: Julius Springer.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.