Treatment of Parental Depression and Reduced Risk in Offspring-Does It Have Anything to Do with Offspring Gender?

Abstract

Objective: There is an increased risk for depression in the offspring of depressed parents. This is in part mediated by maladaptive parenting. Females are more vulnerable to parenting behavior and were found to be at increased risk of depression compared to male offspring of depressed parents. Previous work suggested a reduced risk for depression in the offspring of parents with remitted depression. Offspring gender differences in this association were rarely considered. Here, we are examining the hypothesis that female offspring are more likely to benefit from treating parental depression using data from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R).

Method: The NCS-R is a nationally representative household survey of adults 18 years and older carried out between February 2001 and April 2003. The World Health Organization World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WHO WMH-CIDI) was used to assess DSM-IV Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Multiple logistic regressions were used to assess the association between parental treatment and offspring risk for MDD. An interaction term was added to study the effect of offspring's gender on this risk.

Results: The age-adjusted odds ratio for treatment of parental depression was 1.15 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.72). There was no effect modification by gender (p = 0.42). Surprisingly, treatment of parental depression did not reduce their offspring's risk for depression.

Conclusion: Gender of the offspring had no effect on the risk of depression in the adult offspring of treated versus untreated depressed parents. A focus on mediators like parenting behavior and its gender specific effect needs to be explored in future studies.