Psychodynamic treatment and parent-infant interactions in families with mothers with psychopathology.

The large amount of research today underlines that mothers’ postnatal depression (PND) influences emotional-behavioral problems in their children, relational patterns in mother–child dyads, together with father’s psychopathological symptoms. The general aim of this work was to assess the quality of motherinfant and father-infant interactions in families in which mothers were diagnosed for PND. Furthermore, we estimated the effect of a psychodynamic treatment that involved these families during the child’s first year of life on psychopathological parental symptoms and on the quality of parent-infant interactions. Two groups of families were sampled. In group TxMF (N = 22 families) both parents followed the psychological intervention. In group TxM (N = 22 families) only the mothers followed the treatment. Symptom Check-List90-Revised (SCL-90-R), Questionario Italiano sul Temperamento (QUIT) and the video-recorded procedure observing mealtime Scala di Valutazione Interazioni Alimentari (SVIA) were administered to parents and dyads at two assessment points (T1 = 3 months - age of the child and T2 = 12 months - age of the child). Our results showed that parents in the TxMF group had significantly lower SVIA scores (i.e., less maladaptive) at T2. TxMF group scored lower at T2 at SCL-90-R, whereas TxM showed no significant differences between T1 and T2. This study highlights the significance of the involvement of fathers in the treatment demonstrating that the specific psychological treatment, involving both parents, is more effective than the treatment involving the mother alone. Our data suggested that their involvement reduces psychopathological symptoms in both parents and enhance the quality of their interactions with children.