Mom’s mental state affects child’s

Curing depression in mothers can also rid their children of problems such as anxiety and aggressive behavior, researchers have found. “The bottom-line message is: Mothers who are depressed, go get treated for your depression. It will help not only you, but your child,” said A. John Rush of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, a coauthor of the study.

A parent’s depression is known to put stress on the entire family, often causing children to develop their own mental health problems, said the study published in the March 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The study looked at 151 mothers who were treated across the country, and one child in each of their families between 2001 and 2004. Women were studied because the rate of depression is higher in women than men.

It found that one-third of the children of mothers who were successfully treated with medication saw their problems disappear. When mothers were not successfully treated, the rates of problems in the children rose.

“To our knowledge, this is the first published study to document prospectively the relation between remission of a mother’s depression and her child’s clinical state,” the study said.