Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:33:07.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Life Events and Psychiatric Illness

A Study of 100 Patients and 100 Controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

James R. Morrison ,
Richard W. Hudgens  and
Ramnik G. Barchha
James R. Morrison
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Richard W. Hudgens
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Ramnik G. Barchha
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Many investigators have studied the relationship between life events and psychiatric illness to discover whether certain events predispose to some disorders or precipitate them, and to discover the effect of illnesses already in progress on subsequent life events and the effect of events on established illnesses. The validity of such studies depends, among other things, on the selection of suitable controls. For example, if adult patients with depression differ from a group of controls in that they had a higher incidence of parental death, it might indicate that bereavement had made them more susceptible to the development of the illness. But if the depressed patients were from a lower social class than their controls, the greater incidence of bereavement might be explained by the fact that there is a higher death rate in that stratum of society. This would then cast doubt on a conclusion about a causal relationship in that group between childhood bereavement and depression in adult life.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 509 , April 1968 , pp. 423 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Engel, G. L. (1962). Psychological Development in Health and Disease. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company.Google Scholar
2. Holmes, T. H., and Rahe, R. H. (1966). “Life crisis and disease onset” Presented before the Psychiatric Research Society, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
3. Hudgens, R. W., Morrison, J. R., and Barchha, R. G. (1967). “Life events and the onset of primary affective disorders: a study of 40 hospitalized patients and 40 controls” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 16, 134–145.Google Scholar
4. Kallmann, F. J. (1938). The Genetics of Schizophrenia. New York: J. J. Augustin.Google Scholar
5. Mednick, S. A., and Schulsinger, F. (1965). “A longitudinal study of children with a high risk for schizophrenia: a preliminary report.” In: Methods and Goals in Human Behavior Genetics. Vandenberg, S. G., ed., New York and London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
6. “Parental deprivation and mental health.” (1966). Lancet, ii, 325–326.Google Scholar
7. Pitts, F. N. Jr., Meyer, J., Brooks, M., and Winokur, G. (1965). “Adult psychiatric illness assessed for childhood parental loss and psychiatric illness in family members: a study of 748 patients and 250 controls” Am. J. Psychiat., 121, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Robins, L. N. (1966). Deviant Children Grown Up. Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Company.Google Scholar
9. Schmale, A. H. Jr. (1958). “Relationship of separation and depression to disease” Psychosom. Med., 20, 259–277.Google Scholar
10. Slater, E. (1953). “Psychotic and neurotic illnesses in twins.” Medical Research Council Special Report Series, No. 278. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.