Mom's Depression Ups
Child's Depression Risk: Study
Excerpt By Merritt McKinney, Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Having a mother who has experienced depression can double a child's chances of becoming depressed, a new study shows.

But the risk for childhood depression is only higher than average if the mother has an episode of major depression or is mildly depressed for a prolonged period of time.

Women "don't have to worry" if they have just brief bouts of mild depression, Dr. Constance Hammen, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health in an interview.

These results should "reassure mothers who worry that any depression is bad for the kids," said Hammen, who is at the University of California at Los Angeles.

But when a woman has had several episodes of major depression or a prolonged bout of mild depression, she should seek treatment not just for her own sake, according to Hammen. Although her children may not need formal treatment, Hammen said that "they should definitely be considered in the treatment of the mother."

In these cases, it is important for parents "to keep their eyes open" for signs of depression or other problems in their children.

Hammen noted that depression may be a result of other family trouble, such as stress, marital problems or substance abuse.

"We have to think of depression as a marker for stressful family life," Hammen said.

In her study of more than 800 women and their children, 20% of children whose mothers experienced depression before the child was 10 years old developed depression by age 15, compared with 10% of children whose mothers had never had depression.

Children who experienced maternal depression were also more likely to develop other psychological problems, particularly anxiety disorders.

For children's risk of depression to be higher than normal, the study showed that mothers had to have mild depression for at least 1 year. But for major depression, even a 1- to 2-month episode significantly increased a child's depression risk.

More study is needed, according to Hammen and Brennan, to understand how maternal depression raises children's depression risk.

Hammen and her co-author, Dr. Patricia A. Brennan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, conclude that the study provides "a more precise answer" to the question of the effect of maternal depression on children's mental health. Results of the study are published in the March issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Hammen told Reuter's Health that the increased risk for children of depressed mothers suggests that genetics as well as psychological and social factors are involved.

Hammen noted that the effect of paternal depression on children's risk has been studied less extensively, although she said that a father's depression seems to have a similar impact. While paternal depression seems to be important, the combination of a mother's depression and a father's substance abuse problem seems to be particularly bad for children, Hammen said.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry 2003;60:253-258.

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