Death of a Child Linked to Emotional Breakdown
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WEDNESDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- The devastating grief parents suffer when they lose a child increases their chances of being hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder, Danish researchers report.
Bereaved mothers are particularly vulnerable, the study found. Their risk of hospitalization is twice as great as that of fathers. And while the mothers' risk is highest in the first year after a child's death risk, it remains significantly elevated even five years or more after the loss.
"It was a surprise that increased hospitalization for mental disorders lasted for so many years after bereavement," said co-author Dr. Jorn Olsen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and chairman of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health.
The findings appear in March 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Family therapist Gloria Horsley, who serves as a professional adviser to The Compassionate Friends (TCF), a national self-help group, fears the study may create an inaccurate impression about the fate of bereaved parents.
"We would not want professionals to think that the death of a child causes mental illness," said Horsley, whose 17-year-old son Scott died in a fiery automobile accident in 1983.
J. Shep Jeffr
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