Fathers With Depression - Who Might Benefit From Screening?

Fathers With Depression - Who Might Benefit From Screening?

A follow-up study by NYU School of Medicine investigators reveals that, even though several research papers demonstrate the numerous negative impact maternal depression and depressive symptoms have on the development and health of children, there is a severe lack of information regarding depressive symptoms in fathers. The study was published in the February 23rd online edition of Maternal and Child Health Journal.

In late 2011, a study led by Michael Weitzman, M.D., professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine, and his colleagues identified, for the first time ever, that children with fathers who had depressive symptoms, had increased rates of mental health problems. They found that:

25% of children with both a mother and a father with depressive symptoms had evidence of behavioral or emotional problems.

20% of children whose mother had depressive symptoms.

15% of children whose father had depressive symptoms.

And 6% of children whose mother and father had no depressive symptoms.

Weitzman, explained:

"While the finding of increased rates of mental health problems among children whose fathers had depressive symptoms was not surprising in our earlier study, the fact that no prior large scale studies had investigated this issue is truly remarkable, as is the finding that one out of every four children with both a mother and a father with symptoms of depression have mental health problems."

According to Weitzman, the findings underlined:

"..the urgent need to recognize the roles of fathers in the lives of children and families in clinical and public policy formulation and implementation, to further explore ways in which the mental health of fathers influence the health and function of our nation's children, and to structure our health and human services so as to identify and effectively treat fathers who are depressed or suffering from other mental health problems. A first step is to identify which of our nation's fathers are at increased risk for depression, which is the main reason that we undertook the current study."

Using a large and nationally representative sample of 7,247 households in the USA (in which mothers, fathers and children lived), the current study is the first to examine the characteristics of fathers that are independently linked to increased rates of symptoms of depression. The researchers found that 6% of all fathers had scores which indicated they had depressive symptoms.

In order to identify factors independently associated with increased rates of father's depressive symptoms, the researchers used previously widely used measures of mothers', fathers' and children's physical and mental health, and several other family and child characteristics, such as race, child age, educational attainment, maternal and paternal age, and marital status.

The team found the following factors independently linked to higher rates of father's depressive symptoms:

Living in poverty - 1.5 times as common as not living in poverty

Paternal unemployment - 6.50 times as common

Living with a child with special health care needs - 1.4 times as common

Poor paternal physical health - 3.31 times as common

Living with a mother with depressive symptoms - 5.75 times as common

Even though the results of being poor, having a child with special care needs and living with a mother with depressive symptoms are not unexpected, researchers have now discovered that the strongest predictor of depressive symptoms is actually a father's unemployment. This unique finding has a severe impact on children's health and development, in particular in times of extreme high unemployment rates.

Dr. Weitzman, said:

"The findings reported in the current paper demonstrate factors that could help` identify fathers who might benefit from clinical screening for depression, and we believe the results are particularly salient given the current financial crisis and concurrent increase in unemployment in the USA.

Also of serious concern, is the fact that living with a mother who herself has depressive symptoms is associated with almost as large an increased rate of paternal depressive symptoms as is paternal unemployment. Fathers play profoundly important roles in the lives of children and families, and are all too often forgotten in our efforts to help children. These new findings, we hope, will be useful to much needed efforts to develop strategies to identify and treat the very large number of fathers with depression."

Co-authors of the study include David G. Rosenthal, BA, Nicole Learned, BA, Ying Hua Liu, MD, MPH and Michael Weitzman, MD, Department of Pediatrics, all of the NYU School of Medicine.

Written by Grace Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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