Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Mother's depression associated with increased risk of child's antisocial behavior JAMA/Archives press release at EurekAlert - "Significantly higher levels of antisocial behavior were found in seven-year-old children whose mothers were depressed during the child's first five years of life, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. 'Children of depressed mothers have elevated conduct problems, presumably because maternal depression disrupts the caregiving environment,' according to background information in the article. Researchers have identified three possible explanations for the association between a mother's depression and antisocial behavior (ASB) in their children: 1) depressed women are likely to have antisocial personality traits related to depression, 2) are likely to bear children with antisocial men, 3) and the children of depressed mothers may inherit a genetic predisposition for antisocial disorders."  
  

Suicide Rates Have Decreased With Increased Use of SSRIs, New-Generation Non-SSRIs  Medscape Medical News story - "Suicide rates have dropped in association with increased use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and new-generation non-SSRIs, according to the results of an analysis of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national vital statistics study published in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. However, the investigators acknowledge that this type of data cannot demonstrate causal relationships." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Study Questions Suicide-Antidepressant Link Story at Ivanhoe - "Curtailing the use of newer antidepressants because of recent reports that they may increase the risk of suicide in adolescents may be likened to throwing the baby out with the bathwater, according to researchers from UCLA. The report suggests these drugs, known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, are true life-savers and are responsible for a significant reduction in the overall rate of suicide since they were introduced in the 1980s."