Psychosocial and psychological interventions for treating postpartum depression

Interventions for common perinatal mental disorders in women in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The results are concordant with the findings of meta-analyses of psychological and psychosocial intervention studies for perinatal depression from high-income countries, which report a summary relative risk of 0.70 (95% CI: 0.60-0.81) for women in the intervention arm versus controls receiving standard care. 13 There was substantial heterogeneity in estimated treatment effects, but the small number of studies precludes a meaningful assessment of the reasons for the variation. The psychotherapeutic content of the interventions, the number of therapy sessions, and staff training and supervision practices may have differed across studies.…”

“…4 Psychoeducational interventions that promote problem solving and a sense of personal agency and help to reframe unhelpful thinking patterns, including cognitive behaviour therapy and interpersonal therapy, have consistently proven effective in the management of CPMDs. 12,13 Although few LAMI countries have sufficient mental health professionals to meet their populations' mental health needs, 14 several have tried to deliver acceptable, feasible and affordable interventions based on evidence generated locally. 15 The aims of this study were to investigate systematically the evidence surrounding the impact of such interventions on women and their infants and on the mother-infant relationship, and to understand the feasibility of applying them in LAMI countries.…”

Oxytocin pathways in the intergenerational transmission of maternal early life stress

“…This development is encouraging and necessary, bearing in mind the potential consequences and costs of maternal depression for the affected women, their children, and their families. Reliable and well-validated screening instruments for the identification of women at risk like the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Cox et al, 1987) are available, and so are different targeted intervention strategies such as psychotherapy and parental education programs for antenatal and postpartum depression (Dennis and Hodnett, 2007; Dennis et al, 2007; Shaw et al, 2006). A better understanding of the biological underpinnings of gestational and postpartum depression would provide further targets for intervention.…”

Factor structure of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in a population-based sample.

“…Interventions can ease symptoms and improve wellbeing of mothers (Dennis & Hodnett, 2007), however effective treatment is hampered by low levels of identification of perinatal mental illness with 50% of women with depression and anxiety not identified (Hewitt et al, 2009) evidence that the EPDS also measures anxiety with three items and that the summed score of these items can differentiate between anxiety and depressive disorders (Bowen, Bowen, Maslany, & Muhajarina, 2008;Matthey, Fisher, & Rowe, 2012; Ross, Evans, Seller, & Romach, 2003) although further research is needed to determine its acceptability, validity and reliability and psychometric properties as a measure of anxiety (Milgrom & Gemmill, 2014). A review of the criterion ability of the EPDS to detect antenatal and postnatal depression compared against clinical interviews showed substantial variability, with sensitivity ranging from 34 to 100% and specificity from 44 to 100% (Gibson et al, 2009).…”

“…Interventions can ease symptoms and improve wellbeing of mothers (Dennis & Hodnett, 2007), however effective treatment is hampered by low levels of identification of perinatal mental illness with 50% of women with depression and anxiety not identified (Hewitt et al, 2009). Therefore clinical guidelines recommend screening for or assessing depression and anxiety in the perinatal period (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2015; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2014).…”