THE EFFECTS OF DEPRESSED

The Effects of Depressed Hispanic Women on their Children

The Effects of Depressed Hispanic Women on their Children

During the last five years, depression in mothers, particularly those with children of pre-school age, has become a major topic of discussion among child psychiatrists. At first sight this apparently recent interest appears surprising. The importance of parental depression is mentioned frequently in clinical descriptions of families with disturbed children, 1 and for some time it has been known from systematic studies that any chronic parental illness, physical or psychiatric, can have a deleterious effect on children. The current growth of interest (and concern) arises from the results of a number of research projects carried out during the 1970s. Epidemiological studies, looking at women in the community, show how very common is depression in mothers of children aged under 5, and how widespread its effect can be on family life and on children's development and health.

Diagnosis of depression

In examining this body of new work it is necessary first to consider what is meant by depression. Interest has begun to move from the severe, but fortunately rare, picture of psychotic depression (in which the risks of infanticide and suicide have always to be considered) to the much more common syndrome of neurotic depression. Paradoxically psychotic depression is, with modern physical methods of treatment, easier to treat than the neurotic disorder. Neurotic disorder is more bound up with the everyday life of the patient. Psychomotor retardation, delusions, and depressive hallucinations are rarely present but symptoms of anxiety are common. The woman will generally feel subjectively sad and miserable, and lacking in energy. There may be frequent bouts of weeping, and difficulty in getting off to sleep. Disturbances of appetite are common. These will often lead to loss of weight but in some cases overeating and weight gain will occur. Disturbances of interpersonal relationships are very common with irritability and 'snappiness' expressed towards other family members. Anxiety symptoms are experienced through bodily manifestations-such as palpitations or headaches, transient feelings of panic, and obsessional behaviour.

Prevalence of depression in mothers of young children

An important contribution to the study of depression in women is that of Brown et al. In a randomly selected sample of women living in inner London they found, using standardised interviews, a prevalence rate of 16%. This overall figure disguised very pronounced social class differences with rates of 5% for middle-class and 25% for working-class women. Equally striking differences were found if the women were examined according to their 'life stage'. Rates were lowest both in young and older women with no children at home. The highest rate was 42% for working-class women who had children under age 6 living at home (for similar middle-class women the figure was only 5 %). This was no freak finding, for an identical rate was found for mothers of pre-school children who lived in a different working class area of London. Using similar techniques of evaluation, rates of depression of between 15 and ...