When a parent gets depressed, it can cast a cloud over the whole family, and the whole family should be addressed in treating parental depression.

That's the bottom line from a new report, released today by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

The report is full of policy and research recommendations. But on a very practical level, the report makes it clear that parental depression affects children -- and that depression can be treated.

The sooner depression treatment starts, the better, notes William Beardslee, MD, of the psychiatry department at Children's Hospital in Boston.

"We really think getting treatment early is important," Beardslee says.

Beardslee says during one of the parental depression studies he worked on, a mother told him that when she was depressed, her after-school routine with her young son nosedived.

When that mother wasn't depressed, she would help her son with homework, play with him, and give him a snack. "She said, 'When I get depressed, all that just goes out the window and I plop him down in front of the TV set," the mother told Beardslee. "Our work with her was around how she could, despite depression, keep in place the structures that really helped this boy."

"The fundamental point," says Beardslee, "is that we need to view parents who are depressed as parents first and help them with that," besides treating their illness.

Another committee member, Mareasa Isaacs, PhD, executive director of the nonprofit National Alliance of Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health Associations, says she's heard depression myths from parents that hinder them from seeking help.

"We know parents often feel they're going to lose their children," Isaacs says. "There are a lot of stigma-related messages that need to be changed for everyone to feel safe and comfortable in getting treatment."

Warning signs of parental depression are just like the warning signs of depression in people without kids. Symptoms of major depression include:

• Persistent sadness, pessimism
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, or hopelessness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, including sex
• Difficulty concentrating and complaints of poor memory
• Insomnia or oversleeping
• Weight gain or loss
• Fatigue, lack of energy
• Anxiety, agitation, irritability
• Thoughts of suicide or death
• Slow speech; slow movements
• Headache, stomachache, and digestive problems

Symptoms of dysthymia (milder, but long-term depression) are less intense and fewer in number, but long-lasting -- and of course, deserve treatment.

Have you or someone you know faced parental depression? If so, what was the toughest part -- figuring out that it was depression, finding help, or just getting through the day? Or is the depression going untreated?