• Posted April 2, 2026

Siblings Crucial To Middle-Aged People Grieving The Loss Of A Parent, Study Says

Having more brothers and sisters might make it easier for middle-aged folks to cope with the death of a parent, especially a mother, a new study says.

Middle-aged adults needed fewer antidepressants and other mental health drugs before and after a parent’s death if they were supported by a network of siblings, researchers reported March 31 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

“The findings may indicate that the burden of parental death is less substantial when several siblings are present,” concluded the research team led by Juha Luukkonen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

For the study, researchers looked at prescriptions of psychotropic medications — antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, sedatives and sleeping pills — for three years before and after the death of a parent among more than 2 million Finnish residents. The study focused on people ages 35 to 55 between 2006 and 2016.

Results showed that the fewer siblings a person had, the greater the odds they would need mental health drugs — particularly in the year after their mother’s death.

An only child was 5.1 percentage points more likely to need more psychiatric meds after losing a mother than those who hadn’t suffered such a loss, researchers found.

By comparison, those with one sibling were 4.3 percentage points more likely to need a prescription; those with two siblings, 3.5 percentage points more likely; and those with three siblings, 2.6 percentage points more likely.

These differences became apparent in the year leading up to a mother’s death, researchers noted. They were 2.8 percentage points higher for only children; 2.2 points higher for one sibling; 2 points higher for two siblings; and 1 point higher for three siblings.

Results for dads differed.

The odds of needing psychiatric drugs increased only in the year following a father’s death, and the increase was generally smaller than that observed for a mother’s death, researchers found.

Women tended to need psychiatric medications more than men, results showed. Researchers suspect that may be because men tend to not seek help for mental health issues as much as women do.

This emotional buffer provided by siblings might be fading, given changing trends in family size, researchers said.

“Considering the shrinking kinship networks in many aging societies, children may face increasing strain as their parents near the end of their lives,” the team wrote.

These results make sense, said Dr. Badr Ratnakaran, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at Penn State.

“If you're the only child and you lose your parents, that means the strongest connection with your family, you're losing that,” said Ratnakaran, who was not involved in the study. “So if there's more siblings and their relationship is good, that should be a protective factor.”

However, he said it’s unclear how emotional support from siblings might be affected by distance, given that individuals’ careers often lead to families being dispersed across the U.S.

“After COVID, you’re reading about people migrating for jobs, so I don’t know how that changes the picture culturally,” said Ratnakaran, who is also chair of the Council on Geriatric Psychiatry for the American Psychiatric Association.

He also noted that because the study took place in Finland, its results might not translate directly to Americans.

More information

The American Psychological Association has more on grieving the midlife loss of a parent.

SOURCES: BMJ, news release, March 31, 2026; Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, March 31, 2026; Dr. Badr Ratnakaran, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral health, Penn State