RESEARCH WEEKLY: Parents With Serious Mental Illness Have Increased History of Suicide Attempts
By Ellen Gurung
Being a parent is associated with an increased history of suicide attempts in patients with serious mental illness enrolled in psychiatric rehabilitation programs, according to a study published last month in the Journal of Psychiatric Research by researchers from the Université de Lyon. Although past research has established that parenting can be a source of hope, social connectedness and other positive mental health outcomes, parents with serious mental illness can also face unique challenges relating to feelings of guilt and isolation, fear of custody loss and concerns about the impact of their mental illness on their children.
Parents with serious mental illness experience worse treatment outcomes
The researchers examined a sample of 1,436 outpatients from nine French psychiatric rehabilitation centers and conducted a screening and an evaluation for each individual. The evaluation collected data on parenting status, satisfaction with relationships, occupational status, as well as self-reported information on treatment adherence, self-stigma and illness severity.
Of the 1,436 participants, 18.4% had a child of any age, with 13.4% being fathers and 27.7% being mothers. The fathers in the sample were more likely to have a somatic symptom disorder, a mental illness resulting in bodily pain such as illness anxiety disorder, and the mothers were more likely to have bipolar disorder. The results showed that fathers tended to have a later age of symptom onset and a longer illness duration compared to non-fathers. Compared with non-mothers, mothers had poorer insight into their mental illness and were more likely to report a history of suicide attempts. While there were no major gender differences, mothers with bipolar disorder tended to have slightly poorer insight, higher clinical severity and reduced psychosocial function compared to fathers, as well as a greater history of suicide.
The researchers suggest that this may be due to concerns surrounding inadequate childcare support and fear of custody loss, as well as gender differences surrounding lack of contact with children and employment-related concerns for fathers, and feelings of maternal guilt and stigma for mothers. These results suggest that parenting can be associated with negative outcomes in psychiatric rehabilitation patients and that patients with children may have unique treatment needs and require more support from mental health clinicians.
Implications for further investigation
While previous studies have shown that parenting can be a source of optimism and support for parents with serious mental illness, these results imply that parenting can also contribute to existing feelings of shame and self-stigma. The researchers suggest that creating targeted plans for parents involving peer and familial support, empowered decision-making and reducing the fear of custody loss could be helpful in improving psychiatric rehabilitation outcomes in parents. In addition, interventions targeting self-stigma need to take into account gender-related factors in order to address perceived differences in parenting roles and the subsequent impacts on parents' mental health.
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