Paternal depression linked to premature birth

ConclusionThis study has found a link between depression in expectant fathers and an increased risk of preterm birth in their babies. It was based on large, independent sources of data, and the researchers adjusted their figures to take account of many factors that could have skewed the results. However, it's worth noting a few uncertainties.The main measure of depression was whether people took antidepressants. People take antidepressants for many reasons, including anxiety and chronic pain. Also, many people with depression don’t take antidepressants, and men in particular are less likely to come forward for any type of treatment. Some of the men thought to be healthy might have had undiagnosed depression.Depression in men was only linked to prematurity in certain situations. After taking all other factors into consideration, the results were only statistically significant for new depression in very preterm births, not for repeat depression, or new depression in moderately preterm births. There were only 2,194 very pre-term births out of a total of 366,499, and the findings were only just statistically significant (as seen by the odds ratio of 1.04 to 1.83). This suggests the results may not be completely reliable. It's also worth bearing in mind that the study cannot show that depression, in men or women, directly causes the increased chances of preterm birth. This type of study can never account for all the possible confounding factors that might have caused the result...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Mental health Pregnancy/child Source Type: news