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Background: Paternal depression has been associated with suboptimal developmental outcomes in offspring. We sought to systematically review the research evidence from prospective studies for an association between paternal depression and child adolescent emotional and behavioral outcomes. We also reviewed potential mediators of this association and sources of methodological bias.Methods: A systematic review was conducted using the following databases: Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Reference lists of the included papers were also searched.Results: Twenty-one studies were included in the review. Findings suggested that paternal depression does negatively impact upon offspring development. This impact is observable when paternal depression is present in the antenatal and postnatal stages and during offspring adolescence. The strength of this association is strongly reliant upon a number of contextual mediators, namely; paternal negative expressiveness, hostility and involvement and marital conflict. A quality assessment rating showed the studies were relatively strong methodologically.Limitations: Heterogeneity regarding method of assessment and the magnitude and timing of exposure hinder attempts to make strong conclusions regarding the trajectory of paternal depression and its effects on child and adolescent outcomes.Conclusions: Paternal mental health screening during pregnancy is necessary in order to identify and prevent depression negatively impacting offspring functioning. Including both parents in this process should encourage the alleviation of the environmental mediators which dominate the negative association outlined within the review. Research examining gene-environment interaction is necessary to uncover more accurate details regarding paternal depression and subsequent offspring vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe mental illness that can have high costs for youths (<18 years old) and adults. Relative to healthy controls (HC), individuals with BD often show impaired attention, working memory, executive function, and cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt to changing reward/punishment contingencies). In our study of youths and young adults with BD, we investigated 1) how cognitive flexibility varies developmentally in BD, and 2) whether it is independent of other executive function deficits associated with BD.Methods: We measured errors on a reversal-learning task, as well as spatial working memory and other executive function, among participants with BD (N=75) and HC (N=130), 7-27 years old. Regression analyses focused on the effects of diagnosis on reversal-learning errors, controlling for age, gender, IQ, spatial span, and executive function. Similar analyses examined non-reversal errors to rule out general task impairment.Results: Participants with BD, regardless of age, gender, or cognitive ability, showed more errors than HC on the response reversal stages of the cognitive flexibility task. However, participants with BD did not show more errors on non-reversal stages, even when controlling for other variables.Limitations: Study limitations include the cross-sectional, rather than longitudinal, design; inability to measure non-linear age effects; and inclusion of medicated participants and those with psychiatric comorbidity.Conclusions: Individuals with BD show a specific impairment in reversing a previously rewarded response, which persists across the transition from childhood to young adulthood. Tailored interventions targeting this deficit may be effective throughout this developmentally turbulent time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]