All Entries Tagged With: "pregnancy"

Oh Great!

Today I came across a study showing that Mom’s pass along depression to their children.  As if I wasn’t already worried about screwing up the kids I’ll have!

Moms pass depression on to kids

By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

But a mother’s continued depression increases her child’s risk of such problems, the study shows. Researchers said it is the first published study to show that a child will benefit if the mother’s depression is treated effectively.

Researchers studied 151 mother-child pairs. The mothers were taking medication as part of a larger study about treating depression in the general population. The children’s ages were 7 to 17, and the average age was 12.

At the beginning of the study, about a third of the children had a psychiatric disorder, including depression, anxiety and disruptive behavior.

By the end of three months, about a third of the mothers saw their depression go into remission. Among their children, there was an 11% drop in rates of psychiatric diagnoses. Among children of mothers who were still depressed, there was an 8% rise in diagnoses.

The relationship between mothers’ depression and children’s diagnoses at the end of three months was similar whether or not the children had a diagnosis at the beginning of the study, the researchers write in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“We know that depression and other disorders are brought on by strong environmental stresses,” says lead author Myrna Weissman, a psychologist at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. “Having a parent with an illness is a big environmental stress.”

Weissman and her colleagues speculate that the mothers’ remission initiated a “virtuous cycle” in which the mothers and children positively influenced each other. Researchers are continuing to assess the mothers’ depression and children’s diagnoses every three months for a total of two years.

William Beardslee, academic chair of psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston, called Weissman’s data “very encouraging.”

“In our view, depression in parents is a family calamity, but it is one that can be overcome.”

Tareak and I have been talking about starting a family for a while now.  Among many other reasons, I am afraid to get pregnant because of the possible effects my depression will have on the baby.  Everyone wants the “perfect baby”, and getting pregnant knowing that I could harm the baby before it is even born scares me.  But what worries me even more is that after the baby is born I won’t be able to take care of it.  What if I have one of my “episodes” and just can’t get myself out of bed that day?  What if I don’t change my baby’s diaper all day because I’m too absorbed in my own misery?  Because Tareak is an optimist he will say, “This is why we are learning to cope with your depression now, so it won’t be as big of an issue when we have kids.”  “Don’t worry about it Leslie, I’m going to be there to help you.”  But somehow, I still feel overwhelmed and unequal to the task.

Is it social anxiety

Last week Leslie was reading a newspaper printed by the local hospital and there was a notice for all those couples who are planning a family or plan to expand their family to come down for “Pickles & Ice Cream”. The casual event has exhibits, demonstrations about pregnancy and the opportunity to talk to doctors if you have questions. We are planning a family and are trying to learn about the possible affects a pregnancy will have on her if she has depression while carrying a child. Leslie asked me if I would like to go with her and I told her that I would. Well when it came time to go she backed out and told me she couldn’t go because she was nervous. This nervous energy had nothing to do with depression and everything to do with social anxiety. She felt that if we went to this event then she would tell her mum and then people would think we were starting a family immediately and she felt that there would be pressure to get pregnant right now.

I haven’t been able to classify her ability to magnify simple things into negative mental outcomes. Is it social anxiety or depression related? The truth is I don’t know. One thing is for sure though, I’m going to have to do some research on techniques we can use to help her through it so she can enjoy more of what our world has to offer.