New fathers may also get baby blues, says study

New fathers may also get baby blues just as new mothers, but in case of men their mental health condition goes undetected, suggested the latest study.

The study that was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, stated that depression not only harm the father but children of depressed parents may get less attention and care and in some case, may even adopt violent behaviour. 

Elia Psouni, associate professor at Lund University in Sweden said, "Depression does not only involve major suffering for the parent, but also a risk for the child".

For the study, researchers examined 447 new fathers and showed that the established method of detecting depression Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) works poorly on men.

The study showed that 1/3 of the depressed fathers in the study had thoughts of hurting themselves, but very few contacted the healthcare system.

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Among those who were classified being moderate to severely depressed, 83 percent had not shared their suffering with anyone, the researchers said.

The findings showed that depression among new fathers is characterized by irritation, restlessness, low-stress tolerance and lack of self-control and it also poses a serious risk as men may not receive the help they need.