Children who lose parent to suicide may go the same way

WASHINGTON - Losing a parent to suicide makes children more likely to die by suicide themselves and increases their risk of developing a range of major psychiatric disorders, a new study says.

How and when the parent died strongly influenced their child’s risk, researchers led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center reported.

And because the findings show that parental suicide affects children and teens more profoundly than young adults, it is likely that environmental and developmental factors, as well as genetic ones, are at work in next-generation risk, the scientists say.

“Losing a parent to suicide at an early age emerges as a catalyst for suicide and psychiatric disorders,” says lead investigator Holly C. Wilcox, psychiatric epidemiologist at Hopkins Children’s Centre.

“However, it’s likely that developmental, environmental and genetic factors all come together, most likely simultaneously, to increase risk,” Wilcox adds.

The good news, the researchers say, is that though children in this group are at increased risk, most do not die by suicide, and non-genetic risk factors can be modified.

Paediatricians could intervene in the aftermath of a parent’s suicide and carefully monitor and refer children for psychiatric evaluation and, if needed, care. Family support is also critical, the investigators say.

“Children are surprisingly resilient,” Wilcox says. “A loving, supporting environment and careful attention to any emerging psychiatric symptoms can offset even such major stressor as a parent’s suicide,” he adds.

The current study looked at the entire Swedish population over 30 years, making it the largest one to date to analyse the effects of untimely and/or sudden parental death on childhood development.

U.S. and Swedish investigators compared suicides, psychiatric hospitalisations and violent crime convictions over 30 years in more than 500,000 Swedish children, teens and young adults (under the age of 25) who lost a parent to suicide, illness or an accident, on one hand, and in nearly four million children, teens and young adults with living parents, on the other.

Those who lost a parent to suicide as children or teens were three times more likely to commit suicide than children and teenagers with living parents, a Hopkins release said.

The findings are slated for publication in the May issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.