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Postnatal Depression and Child Development

A three-year follow-up study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

R. M. Wrate ,
A. C. Rooney ,
P. F. Thomas  and
J. L. Cox
R. M. Wrate*
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital; Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
A. C. Rooney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
P. F. Thomas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
J. L. Cox
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
*
∗Correspondence
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Summary

This study investigates whether three-year-old children whose mothers had been depressed after their birth showed more behaviour disturbance than children of mothers who were not depressed at that time. Ninety-one of 103 mothers who took part in an earlier prospective study of postnatal depression were reinterviewed three years later to determine their present mental state, and to assess their child's behaviour, using Richman's Behavioural Screening Questionnaire.

No relationship was found between a prolonged postnatal depression and behaviour disturbance in the child, but children whose mothers had brief postnatal depressive episodes showed more behaviour disturbance than those whose mothers had not been depressed since childbirth.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 6 , June 1985 , pp. 622 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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