Depressed Parents and Children's Mental Health

Growing up with depressed parent may increase child's risk for mental-health problems.
The Chicago Tribune (4/8, Elias) reports, "Evidence is mounting that growing up with a depressed parent increases a child's risk for mental-health problems, cognitive difficulties, and troubled social relationships," conclusions "summed up last year in a report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine." The report explained that "across all stages of childhood," children with depressed parents "have more behavior problems at school and higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders."
Sleep deprivation may alleviate postpartum depression. In the New York Times (4/7) "Opinionator" blog, Terry Sejnowski, PhD, a member of the Institute of Medicine, wrote that sleep deprivation may be "a simple way to alleviate postpartum depression in just a few hours." Interestingly, "if a depressed mother stays up all night, or even the last half of the night, it is likely that by morning the depression will lift," a phenomenon "well documented in over 1,700 patients in more than 75 published papers during the last 40 years." This observation, which "suggests that something is happening in the sleeping brain to bring on episodes of depression," could lead to new treatments for the disorder.