Adult Psychiatric Illness Assessed for Childhood Parental Loss, and Psychiatric Illness in Family Members-a Study of 748 Patients and 250 Controls

For various evidences of parental deprivation and family history of psychiatric illness, 748 consecutive psychiatric patients were examined systematically at admission. the sample was characterized and stratified for age, sex, and socioeconomic and marital status; a matched control population was then obtained from consecutive admissions to the general wards of the same hospital. The various psychiatric and control groups were then compared. There were no differences in parental deprivation in childhood but marked differences in the occurrence of psychiatric illness in family members. It is concluded that if environmental factors turn out to outweigh genetic factors in the genesis of psychiatric illnesses, associational environmental, not deprivational ones, are critical.