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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
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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 

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