An Interview with Sherryl Goodman, Spring 2001

Dr. Goodman is a professor of psychology and researcher with the Emory Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders, led by Charles Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D.

AE: Are children of depressed mothers more likely to suffer depression?

SG: Yes, and there are probably multiple factors that increase chances of depression in kids with depressed mothers. The research I'm currently engaged in with the Conte Center follows the hypothesis that what happens early in life may be most significant. In essentially the ultimate example of this approach, we're looking at children who are exposed to their mothers' depression as fetuses, during pregnancy. We assess women's depression in each month of pregnancy and for a year following birth by having mothers complete standardized questionnaires and interviews about their mood and by taking a biological measure of a hormone called cortisol. From the infants, we first collect a sample of placental blood and then measure levels of this hormone in their saliva within a week after their birth and then at four, and six, and twelve months old. At one year, we assess the quality of the child's social, emotional, and cognitive-intellectual functioning through an observation in the laboratory that measures attachment and the level of cortisol in their saliva.

AE: Are all the participating mothers depressed?

SG: All mothers in this study have experienced at least one episode of major depression, though they are not necessarily depressed at the time of the study. Major depression is a category of Mood Disorder as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which has the criteria of a period of two weeks or more of either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure, plus several other symptoms.

AE: Do the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy make these women more vulnerable to depression?

SG: One would think maternal hormones might trigger depression in women with this tendency toward depression, but studies so far are not pointing to hormones as the culprit. It seems that the best single predictor of post-partum depression is having had an episode of major depression previously. Depression tends to be a recurring disease, with each episode increasing the likelihood of a following episode. That is why it is so important for people to get help for depression quickly, to try to prevent those later episodes.

AE: What are you finding so far?

SG: We're only in the second year of this five-year study, so it's too soon to say. But I think we're going to find a complex picture of the quality of functioning in infants that relates to fluctuations in depression in the mothers.

Another interesting factor is how well the mother can function despite her depression. Two women with equally severe symptoms of depression can function quite differently, for instance. One may be able to meet many of her infant's needs, while the other may not. This is going to be a very important aspect for research because it could point to ways of intervening in families with histories of depression.

We need to ask how depression carries over into everyday life. In general, children of depressed parents suffer greater incidences of depression and other psychological disorders. In the long-term, however, many turn out to function quite adequately. What causes this difference? How can we help more of the children to do well?

I've studied children of depressed mothers for more than twenty years now. I'm particularly interested in cognitive factors in transmitting depression--in other words, how children think about their mother's depression. Do they assume it's their fault, for instance? Or do they say "Mom has this problem"? The way they think about the situation may influence their chances of suffering from depression later in life.

Also, there are factors that may have nothing to do with parenting. Kids come into this world with differing temperaments: some are easy-going; others have higher levels of need and make more demands on their caregivers. If a mother is depressed, obviously she'll have a more difficult time with a difficult baby. So the baby's problems may exacerbate the mother's problems, and it may become a circular pattern. We will be able to look at the role of children's temperament in the Conte Center study.

Return to "The Significance of Stress" in the April / May 2001 issue of the Academic Exchange.