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Men Affected by Postpartum Depression: Presented at APA By Charlene Laino WASHINGTON, DC -- May 13, 2008 -- Postpartum depression is a significant problem in new fathers, as it is in new mothers, a researcher reported here at the 161st Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA 2008). James F. Paulson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Research & Community Health, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, presented the findings on May 6. Despite the wealth of attention given by clinicians, researchers, and public health advocates to maternal postpartum depression, very little is known about this experience among new fathers, he said. Seeking to fill the gap, Dr. Paulson and colleagues analyzed data on 5,089 families with both a mother and a father who were participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a national study of children and their families. Depressive symptoms were measured at 9 months postpartum using a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. Data on parental health behaviors and parent-infant interactions were gained through interviews with both parents. Results showed that 10% of fathers exhibited levels of depressive symptoms on the CES-D scale that have been associated with clinical diagnoses of postpartum depression. That's a "striking increase" from the 3% to 5% of men in the general population that have depression, Dr. Paulson said. The research also showed that 14% of new mothers suffered postpartum depression. That compares with 7% to 10% of women in the general population, he said. The researchers also looked at whether the parents' depression affected their interaction with their children at 9 months of life. "What we found," Dr. Paulson said, "is that both moms and dads who were depressed were significantly less likely to engage in interactions such as reading, telling stories, and singing songs to their infants." Further follow-up showed that only the dads' behavior significantly affected their child's speech development at 24 months, "specifically in terms of how many words the child used," he said. "If their dads were depressed and didn't read to them, the infants used 1.5 fewer of 50 common words than if the dads weren't depressed and did read to them," he said. There was no link between the baby-maternal interactions and the child's command of these words at 2 years. "Postpartum depression in either the mother or father is associated with undesirable parent health behaviors and fewer positive parent-infant interactions," Dr. Paulson said. But in this study, "only depression in fathers was associated with poorer speech development at age 2." [Presentation title: The Silent Partner: Depression in Fathers Postpartum and in Early Parenthood. Abstract 33C] E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version