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Losing a family member in childhood may increase the risk of psychosis, according to a new study.

New research reveals that the risk is highest for children who have had a family member commit suicide.

The latest study involved data from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and children born between 1973 and 1985 in Sweden. A total of 946,994 children were included in the study.

Psychosis was defined as non-affective psychosis (schizophrenia) and affective psychosis (bipolar disorder with psychosis and unipolar depression with psychosis). Exposure periods were divided into "any exposure", "any prenatal" and
"any postnatal".

The findings revealed that 0.4 percent of children exposure to any death during the study developed a non-affective psychosis disorder while 0.17 percent developed an effective psychosis disorder.

Researchers said exposure to death in prenatal period did not increase the risk of psychosis. However, postnatal exposure to death was associated with increased risk of "all psychosis". Researchers noted that the risk increased the earlier in childhood the death occurred.

The study also linked exposure to suicide to the highest psychosis risk.

"Our research shows childhood exposure to death of a parent or sibling is associated with excess risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life. This is particularly associated with early childhood exposure. Further investigation is now required and future studies should consider the broader contexts of parental suicide and parental loss in non-western, ethnically diverse populations," Professor Kathryn Abel, from the Center for Women's Mental Health at The University of Manchester, said in a news release.

The findings are published in the journal BMJ.