Mother’s depression hits child years later
TEENAGERS could run a significantly higher risk of becoming depressed if their mothers suffered the condition while they were in the womb.
Researchers warn that the extra threat for 18-year- olds could be one-and-a-half times higher than for the children of those free of the illness.
Their study also reveals for the first time an important difference between antenatal depression, which occurs in pregnancy, and postnatal, affecting the mother after the child is born.
Experts are convinced stress hormones in the womb are likely to play a key role. This is because there was no link between depression suffered by the father before birth and their child’s mental status as a teenager.
The research analysed parents and children from the ongoing UK Children of the 90s study.
Research leader Dr Rebecca Pearson said the findings identified a new risk to the unborn child
‘Stress hormones affect baby’
from antenatal depression in the mother.
‘The extra risk is around one and half times more,’ she said. ‘Unlike postnatal depression, the mother cannot protect the child from the effects of untreated depression while the baby is still in the womb.
‘Stress hormones, which come from being depressed, are also experienced by the baby.
‘ The results clearly show a difference in risk depending on whether the mother’s depression was antenatal or postnatal.’
The study found 11 per cent of adolescents born to women suffering antenatal depression had the illness at the age of 18.
But the condition affected only 7 per cent of the offspring of women free of depression while expecting, it was reported in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
There was a higher risk for children born to those with postnatal depression if they had a poor level of schooling compared to more educated mothers.
Dr Pearson, of the University of Bristol, said previous research stressed harm to the baby from drugs to treat the mother, but the new findings may give women a better idea of the benefits of treating depression in pregnancy.