Br Med J (Clin Res Ed)  1986;292:1165-1167 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.292.6529.1165

Impact of maternal postnatal depression on cognitive development of young children.

Ninety four women and their first born children took part in a longitudinal study of maternal mental health during pregnancy and after delivery. The children's cognitive functioning was assessed at age 4 using the McCarthy scales, without knowledge of the mothers' psychiatric history or current health. As expected girls performed slightly better than boys and children from middle class and professional families did better than children from working class homes, as did children whose mothers had achieved at least one A level at school. Significant intellectual deficits were found in the children whose mothers had suffered with depression, but only when this depression occurred in the first year of the child's life. Marital conflict and a history of paternal psychiatric problems were independently linked with lower cognitive test scores; together with a working class home background these were the only factors that contributed to the deleterious effect of maternal postnatal depression.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Effect of peer support on prevention of postnatal depression among high risk women: multisite randomised controlled trial

C-L Dennis, E Hodnett, L Kenton, J Weston, J Zupancic, D E Stewart, and A Kiss
BMJ 2009 338: a3064. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Panthangi, V., West, P., Savoy-Moore, R. T., Geeta, M., Reickert, E. (2009). Is Seasonal Variation Another Risk Factor for Postpartum Depression?. J Am Board Fam Med 22: 492-497 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Dennis, C-L, Hodnett, E, Kenton, L, Weston, J, Zupancic, J, Stewart, D E, Kiss, A (2009). Effect of peer support on prevention of postnatal depression among high risk women: multisite randomised controlled trial. BMJ 338: a3064-a3064 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Sills, M. R., Shetterly, S., Xu, S., Magid, D., Kempe, A. (2007). Association Between Parental Depression and Children's Health Care Use. Pediatrics 119: e829-e836 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Gale, C. R., O'Callaghan, F. J., Godfrey, K. M., Law, C. M., Martyn, C. N. (2004). Critical periods of brain growth and cognitive function in children. Brain 127: 321-329 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Gunning, M., Conroy, S., Valoriani, V., Figueiredo, B., Kammerer, M. H., Muzik, M., Glatigny-Dallay, E., Murray, L. (2004). Measurement of mother-infant interactions and the home environment in a European setting: preliminary results from a cross-cultural study. Br. J. Psychiatry 184 : s38-s44 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• MURRAY, L., COOPER, P. J., WILSON, A., ROMANIUK, H. (2003). Controlled trial of the short- and long-term effect of psychological treatment of post-partum depression: 2. Impact on the mother--child relationship and child outcome. Br. J. Psychiatry 182: 420-427 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Inandi, T., Elci, O. C., Ozturk, A., Egri, M., Polat, A., Sahin, T. K (2002). Risk factors for depression in postnatal first year, in eastern Turkey. Int J Epidemiol 31: 1201-1207 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• PETROU, S., COOPER, P., MURRAY, L., DAVIDSON, L. L. (2002). Economic costs of post-natal depression in a high-risk British cohort. Br. J. Psychiatry 181: 505-512 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Yoshida, K., Smith, B., Kumar, R. (1999). Psychotropic drugs in mothers' milk: a comprehensive review of assay methods, pharmacokinetics and of safety of breast-feeding. J Psychopharmacol 13: 64-80 [Abstract]  

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>