Perinatal affective disorders in fathers and their effects on mothers and children

During the perinatal period affective alterations in fathers, like Paternal Perinatal Depression, are very frequent (ranging from 2% to 31%, with a mean of 10.4 %), but occur differently than in women and they are often under-assessed or undiagnosed. Depressive symptoms in fathers tend to be less severe, less definite, and often occur in comorbidity with anxiety disorders, alteration of illness behavior and behavioral acting outs like anger attacks. Moreover, in the perinatal period the mother’s and father’s emotional states are linked and empirical research has found a significant correlation between maternal and paternal depression. Some research data will be presented: 1. Fathers whose partner have suffered from affective disorders during post-partum (maternity blues or post-partum depression) show anxiety (p= .02), depressive symptoms (p= .01) and worry about their own health and paternal role up to the fifth month of pregnancy (Baldoni et al. 2014); 2. If the male is anxious, depressed or hostile during the In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer Procedure (IVF-ET), women tend to manifest more severe affective disorders, anxiety and somatization independently of the success of the procedure (Baldoni et al. not published); 3. In researches using the CARE-Index (a video recorded procedure for the study of the parent-child relationship) depression, low sensitivity and insecure attachment forerunners in fathers negatively influence the psycho-motor development of the child (p= .01) (Baldoni et al. 2012). These results suggest that anxious or depressed fathers, or those with behavioral problems, may hamper the emotional equilibrium of their companion and the development of a good mother-child relationship. In these cases, a lack of a paternal protective function as “secure base” can foster an affective disorder in the mother and negatively influence the attachment relationships and the psychosomatic development of the child.