The link between depressed mothers and children with serious behavioural problems is revealed in new research.
The report, published in the international journal Archives of General Psychiatry, shows children of mothers who were depressed during the child's first five years of life had significantly elevated levels of anti-social behaviour at age seven. The risk to children is even greater when their mothers also have an anti-social personality disorder.
Academics at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and the University of Wisconsin, who conducted the research, say one implication of their findings is that clinicians who treat "behaviourally disordered" children should consider screening their mothers for depression and a history of anti-social behaviour to identify treatment needs for the family.
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