[Loss of father or mother in childhood and onset of psychiatric diseases in adulthood].
An overview is given of the methodological problems involved in assessing the relationship between major losses in childhood and psychiatric disorders in adulthood. The findings in field studies of representative samples of the adult population in which this relationship was investigated retrospectively are reviewed. In their own field study of individuals aged 15 and older in three Upper Bavarian towns the authors investigated whether those subjects who had not been raised by both biological parents and especially those who had lost one or both parents through death before age 15 had an increased risk of psychiatric disorders (true prevalence) or of use of psychiatric services as adults. The relative risk of a psychiatric disorder for those not raised by their biological parents was between 1.1 (age at loss: 11-15 years) and 1.5 (age at loss: less than 1 year). The risk of psychiatric treatment was higher for all age groups, between 1.6 and 1.8, and significantly different from the risk without loss. This overall increase is attributable mainly to those subjects who had been raised by a stepparent and those who had been in a children's home between the ages of 11 and 15. The subjects with parental death in childhood had only a slightly increased risk of a psychiatric disorder or use of psychiatric services.
Psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik München.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010333:Paternal Deprivation; D012307:Risk Factors
Der Verlust von Vater oder Mutter in der Kindheit und das Auftreten psychischer Erkrankungen im Erwachsenenalter.