Does Cause of Parental Death in Childhood Affect Later Risk for Depression?

Children whose parents died have elevated rates of psychopathology in adulthood (JAMA Psychiatry 2015; 72:1227), but the relationship of this to natural causes of death versus external ones (suicide, accidents, homicide) was unknown. To examine this issue, investigators used multiple Danish registries covering 862,554 nonadopted individuals born between 1973 and 1982. Rates of depression from 2006 to 2013 were analyzed by children's ages at parental loss (0–5, 6–11, 12–17 years).

Risks for inpatient and outpatient care for depression were similar after natural parental deaths and no parental deaths, but were increased by about 300% to 400% in men and almost 80% in women whose parents died of external causes. Depression rates were significant…