For those with relatively low purpose in life, the experience of bereavement may induce an existential crisis, particularly if the cause of death is suicide.To assess whether this happens in recent bereavement, 122 people (31% of those who received questionnaires) recently bereaved (mode < two years) completed scales measuring life purpose, life satisfaction, reasons for living, and social support. Multivariate analysis followed by univariate analysis indicated that purpose was associated with greater life satisfaction, stronger reasons for living, more social support, and less impact. Unexpectedly, those bereaved by suicide were not different from other cause of death groups on these measures. High purpose in life apparently can buffer the negative aspects of the bereavement experience, regardless of the cause of death.According to some existentialists, neuroses originate in the failure to find meaning in existence. Frankl stated that "to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering" [l, p. 91. Meaning is an intrinsic, implicit, fluid clarity about the usefulness of life and can be derived from different sources (beauty, truth, love of another) at almost any time. The will to find meaning is the guiding principle of the mature adult, and it changes over the lifespan [2]. When the search for meaning is successful, individuals have a sense of personal identity, direction in their life, and confidence in their ability to cope with painful but unchangeable situations such as bereavement. When the search for meaning is unsuccessful, 279 Q 1991, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

To assess whether degree of belief in afterlife enhanced bereavement recovery following different types of death (suicide, homicide, accidental, and natural), 121 bereaved persons (31% of those asked) whose names were obtained from funeral homes or bereavement groups completed scales measuring belief in afterlife, impact of event, perceived recovery, spiritual well-being, emotional pain, and social support. Multivariate main effects were found for cause of death and high versus low belief in afterlife. Univariate analyses indicated that suicidally bereaved individuals reported feeling less acceptance and, along with those bereaved by accidental death, finding less meaning in the death than those bereaved by other causes. Those with relatively high belief felt relatively more recovery and well-being, and less actively avoided thinking of the death. Apparently the feeling of recovery following bereavement is enhanced by high belief in afterlife, and diminished by losing the loved one via suicide or accident.

No abstract

A total of 1814 patients were studied from the Mississippi State Hospital with a DSM-III diagnosis of schizophrenia and aged 15-39 years at the time of admission. The 634 schizophrenics with a birth date between 1 December and 31 March were compared with the 1180 born between 1 April and 30 November for age of admission, race, sex, marital status, duration of initial admission and clinical subtype. The only significant difference between the variables was the duration of the first admission: winter-born patients had a shorter psychiatric hospitalization than summer-born schizophrenics. These findings are discussed in accord with similar studies.

Prior reviews indicate that schizophrenics tend to be born in the winter, relative to non-psychiatric controls. This conclusion has been criticized, however, as the association between birth seasonality and schizophrenia may be the result of a statistical artifact, the age-incidence effect. To examine this possibility, we studied the birth seasonality of 2892 schizophrenics, controlling for the age-incidence effect. Both before and after instituting these controls, we found excesses for the months of December and March. We conclude that the age-incidence hypothesis does not provide any general explanation of the season-of-birth effect in schizophrenia.