Citation

Joutsenniemi K, Moustgaard H, Martikainen P. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2013; 67(8): 703-705.

Affiliation

Mental Health Problems and Substance Abuse Services Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. kaisla.joutsenniemi@icloud.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/jech-2012-201718

PMID

23709664

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Maternal depression increases the risk for psychiatric morbidity in offspring but the effects of paternal depression and family type are less studied. METHODS: We assessed the effects of parental antidepressant use on offspring psychiatric morbidity in various family settings. RESULTS: Our register-based study followed 132637 children for incident psychiatric morbidity in 1998-2003. The highest risk for psychiatric morbidity was in children living with both parents on antidepressants or with a lone parent on antidepressants. We found little variation in the effects according to parental or offspring gender. CONCLUSIONS: Parental depression as measured by antidepressant use, and single parenthood pose a risk for psychiatric morbidity in offspring.

Language: en