Effectively treating a mother's depression is also good for her children's mental health. A study published in the March 22/29, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that remission of maternal depression after 3 months of treatment was significantly associated with reductions in the children's diagnoses and symptoms.
Past studies have shown that children have more anxiety, more depression, and more behavior problems when their parents are depressed. These problems are often most intense after puberty and can continue into adulthood, affecting the next generation. Effectively treating a mother's depression may have benefits that are felt for generations to come.
The researchers studied 151 mother-child pairs in 8 primary care and 11 psychiatric outpatient clinics. Mothers in the trial were treated with antidepressant medications. The children, aged 7 to 17 years, were assessed by evaluators who were not involved in the mothers' treatment and unaware of maternal outcomes.
Before treatment 35% of children had a mental health diagnosis. This fell to 24% when the mothers were successfully treated for depression, but it actually rose to 43 percent in children whose mothers remained depressed. 33% of kids who had psychiatric diagnoses at baseline and whose mother’s depression got better, actually lost their diagnosis. This only happened to 12 percent of the children of women whose depression remained.
A majority of children had no mental disorder at baseline. When their mother was successfully treated they all remained free of mental disorders at the 3-month follow-up. Seventeen percent of children of mothers who remained depressed developed a mental health diagnosis.
This is a landmark study that clearly shows that the benefits of treating depression are not limited to the person receiving the treatment. If you are hesitant to seek treatment for yourself, then at least do it for your children.
Source: "Remissions in Maternal Depression and Child Psychopathology" A STAR*D-Child Report. Myrna M. Weissman, PhD; Daniel J. Pilowsky, MD, MPH; Priya J. Wickramaratne, PhD; Ardesheer Talati, PhD; Stephen R. Wisniewski, PhD; Maurizio Fava, MD; Carroll W. Hughes, PhD; Judy Garber, PhD; Erin Malloy, MD; Cheryl A. King, PhD; Gabrielle Cerda, MD; A. Bela Sood, MD; Jonathan E. Alpert, MD, PhD; Madhukar H. Trivedi, MD; A. John Rush, MD. JAMA. 2006;295:1389-1398, along with JAMA press release summarizing the results.
Last updated 3/22/06
