Children exposed to suicide are at an increased risk for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia later in life, according to a recent study HealthDay reported.

Researchers found that children who experience death in the family have a higher risk of developing mental problems when they are older. The risk is highest among children who had a sibling or parent commit suicide, HealthDay reported.

"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," Kathryn Abel, a professor from the Center for Women's Mental Health at the University of Manchester, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 947,000 children born in Sweden between 1973 and 1985. They found that 33 percent of those children experienced the death of a family member before they reached age 13.

Among those who were exposed to death at an early age, 0.4 percent developed a non-affective psychosis, and about 0.17 percent developed an effective psychosis, such as bipolar or schizophrenia, researchers said in a press release.

More than 11,000 children were exposed to death from suicide, more than 15,000 to death from accidents and more than 280,000 to death from natural causes.

Risks associated with exposure to suicide were higher compared with exposure to deaths from accident. The largest risk was seen in children exposed ages 0-3 years and risks reduced as age of exposure increased, researchers said in a press release.

Abel said further investigation is needed and future studies should consider "the broader contexts of parental suicide and parental loss in non-western, ethnically diverse populations."