Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Suicide and mental illness in parents and risk of suicide in offspring

A birth cohort study

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

A family history of completed suicide and psychiatric illness has been identified as risk factors for suicide.

Aims

To examine the risk of offspring suicide in relation to parental history of suicide and other parental risk factors.

Method

The study population consisted of 7,177 adult offspring born 1959–1961 and their parents from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort. Cohort members and their parents who had committed suicide were identified in the Danish Causes of Death Registry (follow-up until December 31, 2005), while information on psychiatric hospitalisation history was obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register.

Results

Forty-eight cohort members, 77 mothers and 133 fathers had committed suicide during the follow-up. Independent of parental psychiatric illness and social status, parental suicide significantly increased suicide risk in offspring (hazard ratio 4.40 with 95% CI 1.81–10.69). A stronger effect of parental suicide was observed in offspring without a history of psychiatric hospitalisation.

Conclusion

Parental history of suicide is a risk factor for suicide in offspring, but primarily in offspring without psychiatric hospitalisation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Baldessarini RJ, Hennen J (2004) Genetics of suicide: an overview. Harv Rev Psychiatry 12:1–13

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Brent DA, Perper JA, Moritz G, Liotus L, Schweers J, Balach L, Roth C (1994) Familial risk factors for adolescent suicide: a case–control study. Acta Psychiatr Scand 89:52–58

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cheng AT (1995) Mental illness and suicide: a case–control study in east Taiwan. Arch Gen Psychiatry 52:594–603

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cheng AT, Chen TH, Chen CC, Jenkins R (2000) Psychosocial and psychiatric risk factors for suicide: case–control psychological autopsy study. Br J Psychiatry 177:360–365

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Glowinski AL, Bucholz KK, Nelson EC, Fu Q, Madden PA, Reich W, Heath AC (2001) Suicide attempts in an adolescent female twin sample. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:1300–1307

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Gould MS, Fisher P, Parides M, Flory M, Shaffer D (1996) Psychosocial risk factors of child and adolescent completed suicide. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53:1155–1162

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Johnson BA, Brent DA, Bridge J, Connolly J (1998) The familial aggregation of adolescent suicide attempts. Acta Psychiatr Scand 97:18–24

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Juel K, Helweg-Larsen K (1999) The Danish registers of causes of death. Dan Med Bull 46:354–357

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kim CD, Seguin M, Therrien N, Riopel G, Chawky N, Lesage AD, Turecki G (2005) Familial aggregation of suicidal behavior: a family study of male suicide completers from the general population. Am J Psychiatry 162:1017–1019

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Rasmussen F, Wasserman D (2008) Familial clustering of suicidal behaviour and psychopathology in young suicide attempters: a register-based nested case control study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 43:28–36

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Munk-Jorgensen P, Mortensen PB (1997) The Danish psychiatric central register. Dan Med Bull 44:82–84

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Murphy GE, Wetzel RD (1982) Family history of suicidal behavior among suicide attempters. J Nerv Ment Dis 170:86–90

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Qin P, Agerbo E, Mortensen PB (2002) Suicide risk in relation to family history of completed suicide and psychiatric disorders: a nested case–control study based on longitudinal registers. Lancet 360:1126–1130

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Qin P, Agerbo E, Mortensen PB (2003) Suicide risk in relation to socioeconomic, demographic, psychiatric, and familial factors: a national register-based study of all suicides in Denmark, 1981–1997. Am J Psychiatry 160:765–772

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Roy A, Segal NL, Centerwall BS, Robinette CD (1991) Suicide in twins. Arch Gen Psychiatry 48:29–32

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Silverton L, Mednick SA, Holst C, John R (2008) High social class and suicide in persons at risk for schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand 117:192–197

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Stenager K, Qin P (2008) Individual and parental psychiatric history and risk for suicide among adolescents and young adults in Denmark. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 43(11):920–926

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Villumsen AL (1970) Environmental factors in congenital malformations: a prospective study of 9,006 human pregnancies. FADL’s Forlag, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  19. Wender PH, Kety SS, Rosenthal D, Schulsinger F, Ortmann J, Lunde I (1986) Psychiatric disorders in the biological and adoptive families of adopted individuals with affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43:923–929

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zachau-Christiansen B (1972) Development during the first year of life: a prospective study of 9,006 pregnancies. Poul A. Andersens Forlag, Helsingør

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Preventive Medicine, Danish Epidemiology Science Center, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Holger J. Sørensen, Erik L. Mortensen & Sarnoff A. Mednick

  2. Dept. of Psychiatry, Amager Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Holger J. Sørensen & August G. Wang

  3. Environmental Health, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, POB 2099, 1014, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Erik L. Mortensen

  4. National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Knud Juel

  5. Dept. of Psychology, The Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Leigh Silverton & Sarnoff A. Mednick

Authors
  1. Holger J. Sørensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Erik L. Mortensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. August G. Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Knud Juel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Leigh Silverton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Sarnoff A. Mednick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erik L. Mortensen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sørensen, H.J., Mortensen, E.L., Wang, A.G. et al. Suicide and mental illness in parents and risk of suicide in offspring. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 44, 748–751 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0495-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0495-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation