To Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
By Grant H. Brenner
Pregnancy and the time after the birth of a child is for many a time of joy and great expectations, but it can also cause stress and anxiety, not only in women. According to studies, up to 25 percent of men also suffer from postpartum depression and anxiety.
And postpartum depression and anxiety have been better studied in women than in men, as Dennis, Marini, Dol, Vigod, Grigoriadis and Brown point out in a recent research published on the medical portal Depression and Anxiety, in which they investigate paternal postpartum difficulties.
The study details that there are variable rates of paternal postpartum problems, with depression ranging from 8.1 percent at 18 months shortly after delivery, rising to more than 25 percent in the first 6 months and falling again toward the end of the first year.
Anxiety rates, meanwhile, range from 2.0 to 18.0 percent, and risk factors include a paternal history of mental illness, maternal postpartum problems, economic stress and newborn health problems.
The study included more than 2,500 parents, with data collected between 2015 and 2019, with 75 percent completing surveys during the two-year study.
Questionnaires were sent every three months during the first year, and then twice a year during the second to develop a longitudinal view.
Measures included potential risk factors such as demographic, pregnancy-related, psychiatric and substance/alcohol use problems, childhood paternal adversity, perceived relationship quality and support with partners, and parent- and infant-related factors.
Each of these six domains included a number of relevant sub-factors; for example, the “parent-child relationship” section included quality of breastfeeding, co-sleeping (sharing a bed with the baby), quality of parents’ sleep, parental satisfaction, parental role orientation, and external support for child care.
Thus, the researchers found that in the first year, 569 parents reported concurrent mild to moderate anxiety and depression, while in the second year, 323 parents reported mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
Three percent of parents reported more severe symptoms, which tended to begin in the first year and persist into the second year.
Depression rates started at 4.0 percent, rose to over 11 percent within 3 months, and then stabilized around 10 percent for the remainder of the study period.
For anxiety, the disorder followed a similar pattern, starting at 8.8 percent, rising to over 20 percent at 3 to 6 months, and then leveling off at 20.4 percent at the two-year study endpoint.
In turn, they found that risk factors for concurrent depression and anxiety included poor or average perceived child health in the first 4 weeks, a history of paternal depression, elevated paternal anxiety during pregnancy, a history of intimate partner violence, a need for increased guidance, and a history of paternal attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
On the other hand, protective factors included better alliance and couple adjustment, better social integration, greater attachment, more hours of uninterrupted sleep, and greater parental satisfaction.
Risk and protective factors were similar for the first and second years, with differences in the second year including financial strain as a risk factor, and loss of importance of uninterrupted sleep as a protective factor.
According to psychiatrist Dr. Grant H. Brenner, research on these conditions has been less robust for fathers, although that is changing as the importance of fatherhood is recognized.
«Recent research highlighting the role of father-child attachment and the development of paternal identity, for example, has outlined how men become fathers — from the moment they realize that the baby is actually real, rather than an abstract idea, to recognizing the great responsibility they have, assuming the role of father, and navigating complex and often conflicting emotions,» the doctor said in a recent article in Psychology Today.
He also explained that no study has systematically analyzed anxiety and depression, along with the related risk factors.
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