(Scientific American) -- Mothers are at higher risk for depression during and after pregnancy--and many continue to have depressive symptoms even as children grow up. But are fathers, whose bodies do not go through all of the same biological changes, also at risk for prenatal and postpartum depression?
Strange tales of lactating men or male pregnancy pains crop up in the news from time to time, despite the fact that men cannot get pregnant. Does that mean men are also susceptible to bouts with prenatal and postpartum depression?
Previous research has found rates of depression in new dads that range from 1 percent to 25 percent, but a new meta-analysis, published May 19 in JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, assessed 43 studies of a total of more than 28,000 fathers and found that an average of 10.4 percent suffered from depression sometime between the first trimester of their partner's pregnancy and the child's first birthday.