Child's death boosts parents' mental illness risk

In yet another blow to the idea that all mental illness is purely biologically based, we find a new study which states that:

In the year after the death [of a child], bereaved mothers were almost seven times as likely as their nongrieving peers to be hospitalized for a mood disorder, like depression; about four times as likely to be admitted for schizophrenia; and nearly three times as likely to be admitted for abusing drugs and alcohol.

Bereaved fathers were at lower risk than bereaved mothers during this first year, but compared with nongrieving fathers were still nearly six times as likely to be admitted for a mood disorder like depression, and more than twice as likely for schizophrenia.

With time, the difference in risk between the bereaved parents and their peers narrowed significantly, but after five years the bereaved group still had a higher rate of hospitalization for psychiatric problems -- about 40 percent higher in fathers, nearly 80 percent in mothers.

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