Stressful impact of depression on early mother-infant relations

Abstract

The long-lasting effects of post-natal depression (PND) on parenting stress were assessed. It was also asked whether change in parenting stress followed conventional cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment for PND and the benefits of targeted parent-infant intervention was assessed. Data were from three sources (1) a longitudinal cohort of post-partum depressed and non-depressed women; (2) a treatment study of 162 depressed women involving CBT, routine care and a comparison group of 162 non-depressed women; (3) a pilot study of a specialized parent-infant intervention with 22 depressed women. The longitudinal cohort showed elevated parenting stress persisting until 3.5 years post-partu..