It’s no secret that children pick up a lot of life lessons from their parents. The sole providers of care are responsible for a wide variety of needs from feeding to teaching a child to read. There is now question that a parent has a huge undertaking when it comes to educating their child. What if a parent is depressed?
It stands to reason that if a parent is depressed, a child isn’t learning as much as that parent can offer. A new study indicates a depressed mother can alter her child’s brain.
The Study
Researchers from the University of Montreal have shown children with depressed mothers have an enlarged part of the brain. The amygdale, the part of the brain that controls emotional responses, is bigger in children as young as ten.
The Meaning
“Having enlarged amygdala could be protective and increase the probability of survival,”Dr. Sonia Lupien, the study’s director said.
The amygdala may be protective mechanism that produces stress hormones known as glucocorticoids. The researchers noted that the glucocorticoids levels of the children of depressed mothers who participated in this study increased significantly when they were presented with unfamiliar situations, indicating increased reactivity to stress in those children.
The Next Step
“This strongly suggests that the brain may be highly responsive to the environment during early development and confirms the importance of early intervention to help children facing adversity,” Lupien said.
These kinds of initiatives such as prenatal and infancy nurse home visits and enriched day care environments could help parents avoid emotional damage to themselves and to their child.
“Observational studies involving children exposed to maternal depressive symptoms at different ages, and consequently for different lengths of time, should provide more insight into how this occurs, its long term consequences, and how it can be prevented.”
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