Originally published October 7 2005
Oxford reports on postpartum depression in fathers
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Thomas O'Connor, a University of Rochester psychiatry professor who participated in the study at Oxford, reports that PPD in fathers doubles the risk of behavioral problems in the child.
What if Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have a baby ...
Fathers can develop depression after the birth of a baby and its arrival home.
What's more, says the University of Oxford report, postpartum depression (PPD) in fathers doubles the risk that the child later will have behavioral problems, especially if the child is a boy.
"Postnatal depression is a public-health concern for mothers, fathers and babies," says Dr. Thomas O'Connor, the University of Rochester psychiatry professor who helped research the study.
Whether their suffering will ever be taken seriously --- given how many depressed new mothers still aren't --- is another.
� Quality of parenting during a child's first year can have long-term effects on the child's social, mental and physical development.
Fathers play a crucial role in a child's development, and teens with depressed fathers have higher rates of mental illness.
We know PPD impairs the mother-child relation in a way that is (damaging) for the child.
So, was that also the case with Dad?"
Tested at eight weeks after birth, again about two years later and a final time when the children were 3 to 5 years old, up to 7 percent of fathers reported low moods, feelings of sadness, irritability and hopelessness.
By preschool age, "We saw emotional problems, disruptive problems, fearful behaviors, over-reactive behaviors," says O'Connor.
The Canadian reproductive psychiatrist's research on another relatively unexplored topic --- depression during pregnancy --- was published in "Pregnancy Blues" (Delacorte, $23) last month.
"I think this was a brilliant study, because these men could not have suffered the same hormonal and chemical imbalances that new mothers face, yet they felt the same symptoms and sadness and depression," says Misri.
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