Results of 3 separate studies comparing adult schizophrenic & other psychiatric patients suggest that premature death of a parent may be a contributing factor in the etiology of schizophrenia. This finding was not attributable to a genetically-linked tendency toward suicide in parents. Parental death was found to occur earlier among schizophrenics than other patients &, in 2 studies, to be most frequent among schizophrenics with predominantly paranoid symptons.