Research report
Thoughts of harming infants in depressed and nondepressed mothers

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Abstract

Background: Thoughts of harming the infant and other disturbing cognitions are frequently described in anecdotal reports on postpartum depression. These cognitions have not been examined empirically.

Methods: 100 clinically depressed mothers with a child under 3 years were evaluated and compared to a control group of 46 nondepressed mothers.

Results: 41% of depressed mothers compared to 7% of control mothers admitted to thoughts of harming their infant. Fear of being alone with the infant and inability to care for the infant were assessed only in depressed mothers and occurred less frequently. More than half of depressed mothers had problems in one of these three areas.

Conclusions: Thoughts of harming the infant are common in depressed mothers. Demographic variables, psychosocial stressors and psychiatric variables do not help predict which mothers are likely to experience thoughts of harm or fear of being alone with the infant. These cognitive and affective disturbances may be one pathway by which maternal depression affects infants.

Limitations: The control group was not given the full diagnostic interview. Consequently, the groups were not selected by identical procedures. Also fear of being alone with the infant and difficulty caring for the infant were not assessed in the control group.

Section snippets

Subjects

The depressed group consisted of 100 mothers who were assessed in the Pregnancy and Infant/Parent Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh. The Center provided outpatient services to predominantly depressed pregnant women and mothers with children under 3 years (see Jennings et al., 1991, for a description). Inclusion criteria for the study were: (a) mothers over 18 years of age with no serious health problems, (b) total score of at least 18 on the Inventory to

Prevalence of thoughts of harm - in both groups of mothers

Table 2 lists the percentage of depressed and control mothers experiencing thoughts of harming their infants. Forty one percent of depressed mothers reported some thoughts of harming their infants. Twenty percent reported only passing thoughts, and 21% reported repeated thoughts, taking precautions, or doing something potentially harmful.

In the control group, only three (6.5%) mothers reported that they had experienced such thoughts; none experienced more than passing thoughts. As expected,

Discussion

The findings of this study indicate that thoughts of harming the infant are common in mothers with postpartum depression. Such thoughts, usually in mild form, are also experienced rarely by mothers without depression. Forty one percent of mothers with depression and seven percent of mothers without depression in our sample reported experiencing these thoughts. These percentages almost surely underestimate the number of mothers experiencing thoughts of harm. Shame and/or fear of being reported

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NIMH grant R01 MH49419, “Self-efficacy in toddlers of depressed mothers”, to Dr. Jennings and by NIMH grant MH18951.

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