Disruptive and distressed toddlers: The impact of undetected maternal depression on infants and young children1

Abstract

This paper describes how brief clinical interventions with parents and their toddlers revealed patterns of interaction between mother and child which suggested, retrospectively, that the mothers had suffered from undiagnosed postnatal depression during the period of their children's infancy. These hypotheses were subsequently confirmed by the mothers during our discussions. Clinical work was undertaken in a community health centre, targeting families who were unlikely to attend a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Clinical vignettes highlight how the toddler's entrenched disruptive behaviour may, in part, be linked to the early development of primitive infantile defences against anxiety as a means of coping with the experience of maternal depression.