News'Significant' Number of Dads Experience Postpartum Depression
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans May 18th 2010 10:00AM
Categories: Men's Health, News
The after-baby blues aren't just a mom phenomenon. Turns out, dads also get postpartum depression, the Journal of the American Medical Association is reporting.
About 10 percent of fathers feel depressed either before their babies are born or after, with rates peaking in the three-to-six-month postpartum period, according to an analysis of previous research published in the mental-health-themed May 19 issue of JAMA.
Researchers call the findings significant.
"There are many implications of these findings," the authors write. "The observation that expecting and new fathers disproportionately experience depression suggests that more efforts should be made to improve screening and referral, particularly in light of the mounting evidence that early paternal depression may have substantial emotional, behavioral and developmental effects on children."
The report's co-authors, James F. Paulson, Ph.D., and Sharnail D. Bazemore, M.S., of the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, conducted a meta-analysis to measure rates of paternal prenatal and postpartum depression, as well as its link to mothers' postpartum sadness.
Researchers included studies documenting depression in dads between the first trimester of pregnancy and the first year after the baby's birth, identifying 28,400 participants from 43 different surveys to take into account for their own article.
They estimated that the overall rate of paternal depression was 10.4 percent, compared with a 4.8 percent rate of depression in the course of one year among the general population.
There was also marked variety in the timing of fathers' baby-related depression, with the highest rate, 25.6 percent, occurring three to six months after birth and the lowest rate, 7.7 percent, happening in the first three months after birth.
Higher rates of prenatal or postpartum depression in dads were observed in the United States (14.1 percent) than internationally (8.2 percent).
Risk factors and effects of depression among fathers of newborns had previously gotten little attention in the medical community, the authors write. On the other hand, maternal prenatal and postpartum sadness is well understood and prevalent, and can have a negative impact on women, their families and child development, they said.
"The correlation between paternal and maternal depression also suggests a screening rubric -- depression in one parent should prompt clinical attention to the other," the researchers write. "Likewise, prevention and intervention efforts for depression in parents might be focused on the couple and family rather than the individual."
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