4 Troubled Teens Blog

A study that was conducted at the University of Oxford (England) has revealed that children whose fathers suffer from depression are at increased risk of developing anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorders. In a May 3, 2009, article on British news website Telegraph.co.uk, medical correspondent Kate Devlin reported the following about the Oxford study:

Children whose parents suffer from depression in the weeks after their birth are twice as likely to go on to develop behavioural and emotional problems.

Teenage children of depressed fathers are also more likely to go onto develop depression themselves and even consider suicide, while alcoholic fathers are more likely to have children who suffer from mood disorders, depression and get hooked on drink and drugs.

The report also shows that teenagers whose parents suffer from manic depression, also called bipolar disorder, are up to 10 times more likely than their classmates to develop the condition themselves and between three and four times more likely to develop other psychiatric illnesses.

Previous studies have noted that as many as 20 percent of all teenagers suffer from depression, with more than 70 percent of teen depression cases going undiagnosed or untreated.

Labels: depression, mental_health, mental_illness, teenagers, fathers

Posted By: Aspen/CRC