We may be missing postpartum depression symptoms in men, study suggests
Postpartum depression doesn’t only affect women. According to research, new fathers can suffer the same symptoms — and if their partners are suffering from postpartum depression, as many as 25 percent of new fathers may also experience it.
But research published in the Journal of Mental Health has found that signs of postpartum depression are often missed in men. Researchers in Britain had a group of volunteers read nearly identical descriptions of situations in which the subject suffered from postpartum depression, but one described a man and the other a woman. Ninety percent of the participants identified the woman as having postpartum depression, postnatal depression or depression; only 46.4 percent identified one of those causes for the man’s behavior.
A professor not involved in the study told Reuters that because many people don’t realize that men can suffer from postnatal depression, “it is easier to minimize the symptoms, the severity … or the need to reach out and seek help.”