Does Education Influence Pediatricians’ Perceptions of Physician-Specific Barriers for Maternal Depression?

children.1-4 The effects of a mother’s depressed mood on her offspring can persist throughout the child’s life, lead-ing to problems such as child depression and behavioral disturbances, as well as social and cognitive problems.5-7 Although prevalent and potentially debilitating, maternal depression is underidentified and undertreated.8,9 This can be partially attributed to decreased use of med-ical services among women in this age range because they infrequently visit adult health care providers.10,11 However, given that most young children in this country receive their medical care from pediatricians, and moth-ers often accompany these young children, pediatricians may be uniquely positioned to identify and manage this important problem.12,13 This assumption is supported by a study by Kahn et al,14 which showed that mother