Paternal Postnatal Depression Adversely Affects Childhood Development

June 23, 2005 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While numerous reports have described theuntoward effects maternal postnatal depression has on childhood development, new research now indicates that paternal postnatal depression has an adverse effect as well.

As reported in the June 25th issue of The Lancet, Dr. Paul Ramchandani, from Warneford Hospital in Oxford, UK, and colleagues assessed 12,884 fathers and 13,351 mothers for depressive symptoms 8 weeks after the birth of their child. The fathers were reevaluated at 21 months.

The authors applied maternal reports to standard preschool scales to determine the presence of behavioral and emotional problems in the children at 3.5 years of age.

Paternal depression in the postnatal period doubled the risk of emotional and behavioral problems in the children, the investigators point out. Moreover, paternal postnatal depression raised the risk of conduct problems in boys by 2.66-fold.

Both of these significant associations remained even after accounting for maternal depression or the later development of paternal depression, the researchers note.

Exactly why the effect of paternal postnatal depression was stronger on boys than girls requires further study, the authors state. One possibility is that boys are simply more vulnerable than girls to adverse parental influences. However, if this were case, maternal postnatal depression should also disproportionately affect boys, which it did not.

In a related editorial, Dr. Tytti Solantaus, from the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, and Dr. Saara Salo, from Children's Hospital, both in Helsinki, comment that in light of the current findings and others "there is no longer any excuse to exclude fathers from mainstream research into infant development and psychopathology."

Lancet 2005;365:2158-2159,2201-2205.

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