New fathers may suffer from depression

Moral of the story: Be aware of this possibility when you have a kid and address the issue if you see it arising.  Depression is a treatable condition and is perfectly normal to have arise with a new kid.

Source: AMA Morning Rounds 5/19/2010

New fathers may suffer from depression.

ABC World News (5/18, story 12, 1:15, Sawyer) reported, "We've all become a lot more sensitive to the problems of postpartum depression (PPD) in new moms." Now, however, "it turns out now that...new fathers may be suffering, too."

        USA Today (5/19, Szabo) reports that, according to a study published May 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "14% of American men develop depression, either during their partner's pregnancies or in the first year after delivery." In other countries, "approximately 8% of fathers...develop the problem, according to the analysis, which included 43 studies of 28,000 people."

        The study "found that 10.4% of men experienced serious depression at some point between his partner's first trimester and one year after childbirth, more than double the depression rate for men in general," the Los Angeles Times (5/19, Roan) reports. Unfortunately, "paternal depression symptoms are much less likely to be recognized than maternal depression," because men do not become weepy or sad, and instead may display anger, irritability, or detachment from their families.

        On the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (5/19, D1, Wang) reports that reasons for depression in men bear similarities to those for women, and may result from being deprived of sleep and stress between partners.

        Bloomberg News (5/19, Ostrow) reports that depression "may also occur because of changes in perceived role in life, financial stress, isolation from friends and social activities." Paternal "depression was highest in the three to six months following the baby's arrival," possibly "because family leave ends about that time, particularly in the US," the study authors from the Eastern Virginia Medical School theorized.

        According to CNN (5/19, Landau), "depression in fathers has potential negative implications for the family, and for the child's development and behavioral and emotional health," lead author James Paulson, PhD, "said. Paulson's study also found that fathers' depression tended to have an association with mothers' depression -- so when moms were more depressed, so were dads." Still, further research "is needed to determine how the two are related, as one parent's moods have not been proven to cause the other's."