Psychotic Illnesses Linked To Broken Homes
Research suggests that those from broken homes may be more prone to psychotic illnesses. Separation was associated with a 2.5 fold increased risk in developing psychosis: “Separation from one or both parents for more than a year before the age of 16, as a consequence of family breakdown, was associated with a 2.5 fold increased risk of developing psychosis in adulthood”.
Researcher Dr Craig Morgan said, “These findings provide evidence that early social adversity may increase the risk of later psychosis”, however he also stressed that more work was needed to fully understand this.
Another researcher, Professor Robin Murray, said, “For the last 30 years the traditional view has been that psychosis is largely a genetic brain disease, and most psychiatrists have thrown out the view that social factors can have a major impact”
March 24th, 2007 at 10:35 am
This type of statistic can be dangerous, there are many instances of psychotic illnesses within dysfunctional (full) family dynamics (pre-dispositions aside). As with all statistics it is worth remembering that the influence quantities are so vast they are just not measurable and the defining factors we read about here; family type, psychotic illness and separation represent the interests of the parties that designed the experiment. It is a suggestion, not a natural law or a given truth…
Ps Find your website very interesting!