Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:153-157
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Childhood parental death and adult psychopathology
PV Ragan and TH McGlashan
Childhood parental death has frequently been linked with adult mental
disorders--mostly depression. The authors found no association with
psychiatric diagnosis among 72 inpatients who had experienced the death of
a parent when they were children, compared with 460 other patients in the
Chestnut Lodge Follow-Up Study. The patients with a childhood parental
death did, however, have significantly greater family pathology and
impaired social and heterosexual functioning. These results refute the view
that childhood parental death is singularly casual of adult psychopathology
but support its role in a multidetermining matrix of contributing factors.
