Mother’s depression worsens asthma in children! Part 1

US researchers say that a mother’s depression can worsen her child’s asthma symptoms. The 6 month study done by researchers at John Hopkins university looked at 262 black mothers and their children. What they observed was that mothers who had severe depression also often had children with frequent asthma attacks. On the other hand, women who had less depression had children with fewer asthmatic symptoms.

The John Hopkins Children's Center team looked at black mothers and children because black children are excessively affected by asthma and are seen more often in the Emergency room than other ethnic groups. Says lead investigator Kristin Riekert, a pediatric psychologist and co director of the John Hopkins Adherence Research Center, "Even though our research was not set up to measure just how much a mom's depression increased the frequency of her child's symptoms, a clear pattern emerged in which the latter followed the earlier.“

On the other hand, children who had less asthma did not necessarily have mothers with less depression. Based on these observations the researchers say that depression may be an independent risk factor that can forecast the severity of asthma in a child.