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In Brief: Children of depression

In Brief

Children of depression

Two new studies throw light on how children are affected by a parent's depression and its treatment.

In the first study, 101 people, average age 35, of parents who had been treated for depression at clinics were compared with 51 matched controls who did not have a depressed parent. Depression in a parent more than doubled the risk for anxiety disorders, depression, and addiction in children. Compared to controls, nearly three times as many children of depressed parents, proportionately, had been treated for emotional problems, and twice as many had taken psychiatric drugs.

That was no surprise, given the well-known influence of family history on psychiatric disorders. More remarkably, the children of depressed parents also had a five-times higher rate of cardiovascular illness than controls (11% versus 2%). And anyone in either group who had cardiovascular illness also had a psychiatric disorder, usually a mood disorder.

Taking this into account, the researchers plan to look for changes in the brain that are correlated with cardiovascular disease in 35-year-olds.

A second study of 151 depressed mothers and their children (ages 7–17) shows that treating a mother can both prevent and relieve depression in her child. One-third of the mothers recovered after three months of treatment, and nearly half improved substantially.

Many of the children also had psychiatric symptoms, and more then a third had a psychiatric disorder. Their rate of depression, anxiety, and disruptive behavior was two to three times the average. When mothers improved, so did children. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and conduct disorder decreased from 35% to 24% when the mother improved, while increasing by 8% when the mother's treatment was unsuccessful. Among children who had a psychiatric diagnosis, 33% recovered if their mothers did, but only 12% did when the mothers remained depressed. Among children with no psychiatric disorder, 17% developed one if the mother remained depressed.

These differences persisted irrespective of age, sex, household income, the severity of the mother's depression, the presence of a father in the home, life stress, and other factors.

The authors point out that this group of patients was part of a much larger study of people seeking treatment for depression in which very few had children ages 7–17. Depressed women — especially poor women — are less likely to seek treatment if they have children, although they may need it more, for the child's sake as well as their own. The authors recommend more outreach to these women.

Weissman MM, et al. "Offspring of Depressed Parents: 20 Years Later," American Journal of Psychiatry (June 2006): Vol. 163, No. 6, pp. 1001–08.

Weissman MM, et al. "Remissions in Maternal Depression and Child Psychopathology: A STAR*D-Child Report," Journal of the American Medical Association (March 22/29, 2006): Vol. 295, No. 12, pp. 1389–98.

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Last updated:	November 07, 2006