Children step forward to take care of depressed parents

London, March 7 : Children take on enormous responsibility for a parent who is ill and for other family members, according to the findings of a new study.

Britt Hedman Ahlstr�m, a nurse who conducted research for a doctoral thesis at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, examined how family life is affected when a parent is suffering from depression.

Nine families, including 10 children and young adults between the ages of five and 26, and 11 parents were included in the study.

"The toughest burden of responsibility that children take on is ensuring that the depressed parent doesn't commit suicide. So children take on an extremely heavy responsibility by monitoring and keeping an eye on the depressed parent," said Ahlstr�m.

The results show how the family's daily life changes and becomes more complicated when a parent is suffering from depression. Uncertainty about what is happening has an effect on the daily life of the entire family.

Depression also means that the parent becomes tired and exhausted, which then affects and weighs heavily on the children's daily life. Depression changes the relationship between a parent and his/her children, since they no longer communicate with each other as they used to.

Family members try their utmost, both as individuals and together, to cope with the situation, so that daily life can be restored to a more manageable level. The children take responsibility for both the depressed parent, siblings and themselves, when they notice that the parent cannot cope, said a Sahlgrenska statement.

"Even if the depression goes away for a time, the family is never entirely free from anxiety over it coming back. This means that there is a prolonged period of suffering associated with depression," said Ahlstr�m.