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Parents' Divorce Linked To Schizophrenia?

A new study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at London's King College suggested that people coming from broken homes are prone to mental health diseases.

Although it was previously thought that social factors do not affect the risk of developing mental disorders like schizophrenia, the experts revealed that parents' divorce dramatically increases the odds. Moreover, there is evidence that the risk of schizophrenia might be linked to the death of a parent.

The research indicated that people whose parents separated before they had turned 16 are 2.5 times more likely to develop schizophrenia.

Statistics are very concerning; almost 25 percent of British children are raised by single parents.

The British team attentively examined information collected from 780 patients with schizophrenia.

The researchers also suggested that ethnical minorities are more vulnerable to schizophrenia. According to the study, black people have increased risk toward schizophrenia by 600 percent, as compared to white Britons. Furthermore, it was found that African Caribbean people are nine times more likely of suffering from schizophrenia.

"These findings provide evidence that early social adversity may increase the risk of later psychosis. Such early adversity may be one factor contributing to the high rate of psychosis in the African-Caribbean population," stated Dr Craig Morgan, co-author of the research.

The findings were published in the latest issue of journal Psychological Medicine.