A large US study with a demographically diverse sample shows there is a strong correlation between postpartum depression and infants with colic, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, the largest pediatric meeting in the world.

In the current study, Pamela High, MD, clinical professor of pediatrics at Brown Medical School, and her American colleagues evaluated families who responded to a risk assessment survey used by a number of US states to evaluate risks in new mothers and infants. The overall risk assessment program is sponsored by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The standard survey asked questions about maternal depression. The research team added the question, “How inconsolable is your baby?” The new question first appeared on Rhode Island’s 2002 survey.

A total of 4,214 new mothers got the questionnaire and 2,927 responded. The majority of mothers were white, married, had household incomes over $40,000 per year and had health insurance. Most of their babies were between two and four months of age.

Among respondents, 19 percent of mothers reported moderate to severe symptoms of postpartum depression. When asked about their infant’s mood, 8 percent reported that their babies were difficult to console. Responses showed a strong connection between the two.

Mothers reporting depression were more than twice as likely to report infant inconsolability. Women with inconsolable babies were more than two times as likely to report depression. Even when other variables were controlled - such as age, race and income - the two were closely related.

High warned that the work does not show a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a fussy baby and a depressed mom. “We can’t say that inconsolability causes depression or that depression causes inconsolability,” High said. “However, we did find a link between the two. And this won’t surprise anyone who knows a mother coping with a fussy baby.”

“Depression and inconsolability are strong predictors of one another,” High said. “One in three women with fussy infants acknowledged that they were depressed.”
High stressed that the findings indicate clinicians who see colicky infants should have the mothers evaluated for depression and that clinicians who are asked to evaluate new mothers should query infant mood and behavior.