Parent's suicide risks health problem of children

STOCKHOLM, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Children and young people who lose their parents, especially if the death cause were suicide, will increase the risk of having psychological problem in their later life, according to a statement issued by Swedish Medical Institute, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Thursday.

The study on how parents death affect children's long term psychological development and physical health was jointly done by Karolinska Institute and the American John Hopkins University.

"The study shows that there should be special support for families which suffer from suicide. That can bring about significant impact in preventing future psychological health problem for children," Professor Bo Runeson who led the research told Xinhua over a phone interview.

"With the help of national registration of Swedish population, we compared in life and health factors among over 40 thousands people whose parents either died of accidents or suicide, more than 400 thousands people whose parents died of natural death and 3.8 million people whose parents are alive," Runeson said.

Results show that children whose parents committed suicide doubled the risk of committing suicide themselves while those whose parents died of natural death didn't have such tendency, he said.

The research also show that children whose parents committed suicide increased risk of getting depression or other psychological problems. And children who lost parents no matter for what reason can also develop to commit crime in adult life, compared with children whose parents are still alive, Runeson said.

Karolinska Institute is famous partly for the selection of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine every year.