Prenatal loss of father and psychiatric disorders

The authors identified 167 children whose fathers had died before they were born. They also identified 168 children whose fathers had died during the children's first year of life. Then they followed all 335 of these children through 35 years of medical records. Most of the fathers had died during the second World War when cigarettes and alcohol were rationed severely, if they were obtainable at all. In both groups the parents were of comparable age and came from comparable social classes. All the children grew up fatherless. Only those who lost their father while in the womb were at increased risk of mental diseases, alcoholism, or criminality.