Low birth weight ups teen girls' depression risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - During adolescence, girls but not boys may be more likely to develop depression if they were born weighing less than about 5.5 pounds, new research suggests.

"Parents and pediatricians of girls who were of low birth weight "should pay close attention to their mental health as they enter puberty," write researchers in the medical journal, Archives of General Psychiatry.

Dr. Elizabeth Jane Costello, of Duke University Medical School, Durham, North Carolina and colleagues examined the relationship between low birth weight and depression in 1,420 boys and girls between 9 and 16 years of age from 11 North Carolina counties.

Although only about 5.7 percent of girls in the study were born weighing less than 5.5 pounds, about 38 percent of these girls suffered one or more episodes of depression between the ages of 13 and 16 years.

By comparison, only 8.4 percent of girls the same age born with normal weight suffered at least one bout of depression.

Costello and colleagues estimate that 18 percent of cases of depression in adolescent girls may be linked with low birth weight.

On average, 23.5 percent of girls ages 13 to 16 years with low birth weights suffered depression each year compared with 3.4 percent of those with normal birth weights.

The low birth weight-depression link was absent in boys, with no more than 4.9 percent of boys with depression, regardless of their birth weight.

Low birth weight was also not associated with an increased risk of any other psychiatric problem, such as anxiety disorders, in either boys or girls.