Study: Dads can suffer postnatal depression too

Although it occurs most often in mothers, fathers can also suffer postnatal depression and it can influence their children’s early behavior, British researchers said on Friday. Baby boys seem to be particularly affected by depressed dads and have twice as many behavioral problems in their early years as other children.

“Our findings indicate that paternal depression has a specific and persisting detrimental effect on their children’s early behavioral and emotional development,” said Dr. Paul Ramchandani of the University of Oxford.

In a report published in The Lancet medical journal, Ramchandani and his team studied behavior and mental health of 12,800 couples in the first few weeks after the birth of their child and shortly before the children’s second birthday.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has no comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 27 Jun 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.