Young fathers at risk or depressive symptoms, study finds

Young fathers at risk or depressive symptoms, study finds

Monday, 14 April 2014 HealthDay News)-young fathers may be at increased risk of depressive symptoms after their baby arrives, completely through the child nursery school, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that for men, the fathers in their 20s and lives with their children, depressive symptoms are usually during the first five years of the life of the child get.

Experts stressed that the results mean not that young fathers be clinically depressed are. The study does not prove cause early fatherhood, depressive symptoms — - it showed only an association between the two.

"But this shows us a period of time where fathers are particularly at risk," said Research Director Dr. Craig Garfield, an associate professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine in Chicago.

The new research was released to print online April 14 in Pediatrics and in the may issue of the journal.

Many studies have the risk of postpartum depression for mothers saw research, but Garfield is much higher, in the fathers mental health during this time, said. So far, studies have shown that 5 to 10 percent of new fathers develop clinical depression after the baby comes.

In addition, researchers have found that when fathers are depressed, children tend to be more behavioural problems and weaker reading and language skills have.

It is not clear, what the role of depression in these problems of the fathers. But "If parents thrive, children thrive," Garfield said, both parents, mental health is important.

For the new study, Garfield team used data from a long-running project began after more than 20,000 U.S. teenager in the 1990s. Every few years, a 10-question participants completed screening tool on depressive symptoms-be asked whether she felt unhappy tired or dislike, for example.

The more than 10,600 young men in the study a third become fathers by the time that they were aged from 24 to 32 years. And Garfield team found that fathers showed depression scores a noticeable shift in the course of time.

Among the fathers with their children life depression rose results on average by 68 percent in the first five years of their child. Fathers, who were living with their children did not show a different trend: their depression increased symptoms after high school, and then started to decline, after her fathers become.

While this 68 percent incurred large sounds, it is average for the group, said Garfield. And for many men, too, that much of a change was not enough to push it into a clinical depression.

Do not screen for depression many men "started with very low [results], so that even with this boost, she would probably, positive" noted Garfield. "But some would."

Why do some men depressed, after the baby comes? "We really the reasons still do not understand," said Garfield.

With new moms, experts suggest that depression results from a mix or stress and the biological changes that come with pregnancy and birth. Men's bodies, but their lives are not affected, fatherhood at any rate change, Eric Lewandowski, noticed the child study center at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

The fathers feel additional financial strain or stress on their marriage, for example, said Lewandowski, who was not involved in the study.

"The transition can be a tough one," he said, "especially around the age at which these men fathers-were in their mid-20s."

It is not clear, become the fathers in their 30s established, whether the results for men were different Lewandowski or beyond.

Both he and Garfield, said the results call attention to psychological health of the fathers. "Parent is a team sport, and as a transition into fatherhood to understand is important, even" Garfield said.

When or how the fathers because depression screen there are no guidelines. But more research into the topic that could change, said Garfield.

For now, Lewandowski said it is important that new parents for the reality of having a child be prepared. "It's not all roses. It's hard, "he noted.

On the other hand, he said, are "the joy that a child", and it is difficult for a scientific study and it to measure against the less positive aspects of parenthood "weigh". And perhaps most mothers and fathers, Lewandowski said, the joy and the difficulty can "coexist."

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Sources: Craig Garfield, m.d., Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine, Chicago, Illinois R. Eric Lewandowski, Ph.d., Clinical Assistant Professor, child and adolescent psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center, child study center, New York City; May 2014 Pediatrics