Parental loss before the age of 16 years: a comparative study of patients with personality disorder and patients with schizophrenia in a high secure hospital's population.
There is a considerable body of literature supporting an association between separation from parent in childhood and later personality disorder. This study compares a 10-year cohort of high secure hospital patients who had either a personality disorder or schizophrenia, but with no other significant psychiatric comorbidity. The information source was the Special Hospitals Case Register. The most important finding was a statistically significant difference in the rates of child-parent separation between the two groups. In the personality disorder group, 119/147 (81%) of the patients had been separated from one or both parents before the age of 16 compared to 178/289 (62%) in the schizophrenia group.
Pert
L
L
Rampton Hospital, Notts ON22 OHU, UK.
Ferriter
M
M
Saul
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003643:Death; D004243:Divorce; D005260:Female; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000209:etiology*