The study shows that approximately one of five mothers who bring their children to a pediatric emergency department or well-child clinic for care of non-urgent complaints have depression. Moreover, 76 percent of those who screen positive for depression reported that their depression “made it difficult to care for their children,” says Jacqueline Grupp-Phelan, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine physician at Cincinnati Children’s and the study’s lead author.
“The high rates of depressive symptoms and of mothers’ reports that these symptoms cause them difficulty in caring for their children indicate that resources to screen for and address depressive symptoms in mothers should receive high priority in pediatric health care settings,” says Dr. Grupp-Phelan.
The study is the first to examine maternal depression in the emergency department setting and is published in the May-June issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
Dr. Grupp-Phelan and her colleagues at Cincinnati Children’s administered a mental-health screening to 492 mothers who brought their 6-month-old to 18-month-old children to an emergency department for low-acuity illness or to a pediatric primary care clinic for well-child care. Eighteen percent of mothers screened positive for depression, with 9 percent having major depression and 5 percent with suicidal thoughts. The study was conducted between April and July 2000.
Dr. Grupp-Phelan also found that 30 percent of mothers screened positive for one of four mental health problems: depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder or somatic complaints – the presence of multiple, common physical ailments such as stomach or back pain, headaches, bowel problems or trouble sleeping.
Ambulatory Pediatrics