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From a story in the March
21, 2006 edition of the Omaha World Herald:
CHICAGO (AP) - Researchers say they have shown for the first
time that treating a mother's depression can help prevent
depression and anxiety disorders in her child, a provocative
finding with potentially big public health implications.
The study was small, but the researchers and other experts
called it convincing and said it illustrates how important
a parent's well-being is to a child.
Depression runs in families and has a strong genetic component,
but environmental factors can trigger it. The study results
indicate that for children of depressed mothers, that trigger
is sometimes their mothers' illness acting up, said lead author
Myrna Weissman, a researcher at Columbia University and New
York Psychiatric Institute.
Effective treatment for mothers could mean their children
might avoid the need for prescription antidepressants, the
researchers said.
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