Perinatal Depression

Perinatal anxiety and depression are common mental health concerns that may negatively affect maternal well-being, infant development, and family functioning. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown beneficial effects on reducing psychological distress during pregnancy; however, maintaining attention and engagement during mindfulness practice may be challenging for some pregnant women. This randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an integrated virtual forest environment and mindfulness-based intervention for improving mental health in perinatal women. Pregnant women between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation will be randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving virtual reality (VR)-based forest mindfulness intervention or a control group receiving conventional mindfulness intervention. Both groups will participate in a 9-week mindfulness program and receive app-based mindfulness practice. The experimental group will additionally receive immersive VR forest-based mindfulness sessions during prenatal visits. Outcomes including anxiety, depression, mindfulness awareness, physiological indicators, and intervention acceptability will be assessed during pregnancy and postpartum follow-up.

The purpose of the proposed study is to determine the effectiveness of an online, 9-week group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention for paternal perinatal depression (PND) in fathers and fathers-to-be. Fathers or fathers-to-be living in Ontario, Canada who have depression symptoms while their partner has been pregnant and/or during the first 18 months of their child's life will be assigned with a 50/50 chance (like flipping a coin) to receive online group CBT in addition to usual care, or to receive usual care only.

The goal of this study will be piloting the Parents and Babies perinatal depression prevention intervention to examine its feasibility and acceptability and to obtain preliminary data on its efficacy. This includes exploring/understanding users' experiences navigating the interventions (e.g., from an implementation perspective) and preliminary evaluations of clinical outcomes, including mental health and minority stress. With data gathered from this pilot study, we will make final adaptations to the Parents and Babies manuals and plan to develop a randomized-control trial to evaluate efficacy of the intervention.

This study is part of the e-Perinatal project and is embedded within the main cluster randomized trial. The primary aim is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of an early diagnosis detection and referral strategy to specialized mental health services within routine maternal care. The secondary aim is to validate and implement an Artificial Intelligence-based algorithm for the early screening of mental health disorders in routine services.

This study is part of the ERC-funded e-Perinatal project and represents a large-scale hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation cluster randomized controlled trial. The primary aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a personalized and complex mobile health (mHealth) intervention (e-Perinatal) in the universal prevention of maternal perinatal depression and anxiety disorders. Secondary aims include evaluating the impact on paternal mental health and child development, as well as examining implementation outcomes in real-world primary healthcare settings.

The goal of this clinical trial is to find out if a digital program called Reaching Calm can help prevent anxiety in women who are pregnant. The study will offer Reaching Calm at obstetric practices where participants receive prenatal care. The study focuses on people who may be at greater risk for experiencing anxiety during or after pregnancy. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Is Reaching Calm easy to use and acceptable to both participants and healthcare professionals? * Does Reaching Calm help reduce risk for anxiety among participants? * Does personalizing the digital program help participants stay involved? Researchers will compare obstetric practices that offer Reaching Calm to those providing usual care. Participants will: * Receive text messages and use a web-based platform for learning about anxiety and coping strategies * Respond to surveys about their experiences and symptoms * Some will take part in interviews and focus groups to share their views * Healthcare professionals will receive training on how to support the program The study will monitor how many people join, stay involved, and how the program affects their well-being. The results will help prepare for a larger study that could lead to wider use of Reaching Calm across the country.

The purpose of this study is to determine if the addition of digital sensing data collected from phones and watches during the early stages of perinatal depression (PND) treatment can better predict treatment outcomes than using self-reported symptoms alone.STAND for PND: The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge (DGC) has previously developed a technology-assisted, scalable therapy system called STAND (Screening and Treatment for ANxiety and Depression) for perinatal depression (PND) and has demonstrated in an initial randomized clinical trial that this treatment intervention to be as effective as psychiatrist delivered care for PND. In this study, the investigators will administer STAND for PND for up to 12 weeks as part of study participation. There will be no comparison between our treatment intervention and a treatment as usual condition, as this is not a trial of efficacy. In the STAND for PND treatment model, women with moderate symptoms will be routed to coach-guided, digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) tailored to PND, which has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment approach for PND. Women with severe depression or suicidality will be routed to clinician delivered CBT, with pharmacotherapy as needed, with both CBT and pharmacotherapy demonstrated to be effective treatment approaches for PND. Symptoms will be regularly monitored throughout the intervention period. Digital Sensing in Depression: The DGC also has substantial experience in large-scale longitudinal digital sensing studies, and experience identifying associations between self-report or clinical ratings of depressive symptoms and digital sensing features, including in pregnant and postpartum women. Digital Sensing in a STAND for PND study: In our previous STAND for PND study, the investigators did not include digital sensing. In this next phase of our research program, the investigators will collect digital sensing data from phones and watches during the first four weeks of study participation. The investigators will enroll up to 250 women during their last trimester or who are in the postpartum period to participate in the 12-week study, which includes treatment provided through the STAND for PND program of care and during which the investigators will obtain 4-weeks of digital sensing data.The investigators will be testing whether behaviors measures through digital sensing (i.e., digital features) in combination with self-reported depression symptoms will better predict treatment outcomes than the self-reported depression symptoms alone. The investigators are testing the hypothesis that prospective longitudinal assessments using digital devices will enhance our ability to predict outcomes of STAND-PND.This project is part of a larger program of research that aims to improve clinical decision-making for PND by establishing a clinical care model for PND that fully integrates digital sensing with digital therapy. An additional objective of this program of research is to target low-income mothers from populations that have had limited access to mental healthcare, given that this population is particularly vulnerable to the impact of PND.

Mental health conditions occurring during pregnancy and up to one year postpartum (the perinatal period) occur in 1 in 5 perinatal individuals. To improve mental health care during the perinatal period, this study will implement and compare a health care model of improving mood and anxiety disorder care in practices with a health care-community partnership model. The study will include 32 perinatal care settings across the United States. Half of them will have the health care model, the other half will have the health care-community partnership model. The study is designed to answer the question, "Should states and healthcare systems put resources into a healthcare system approach or a healthcare-community partnership approach to mental health care?" The results of this study will help states and healthcare systems decide how to develop pathways for increasing access to mental health care for pregnant and postpartum individuals.

Perinatal depression (PND), defined as a depressive episode occurring from the antenatal period through 12 months following childbirth, has a reported prevalence of 12-22%, with higher rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including India. PND has a multifaceted and detrimental impact on both the mother and the child during a critical window of the child's emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Mother-infant bonding - the affective relationship that develops between a mother and her infant - is significantly impaired by maternal depression. Impaired bonding leads to poor antenatal attachment, earlier cessation of breastfeeding, risk of child maltreatment and neglect, and diminished reciprocal emotional and cognitive growth in the infant. The maternal brain undergoes significant neurobiological adaptations during the perinatal period to facilitate recognition of infant emotional cues, reward-driven bonding experiences, and reciprocal emotional responses. These include changes in oxytocin signalling, cortisol regulation, and functional connectivity of brain regions involved in maternal behaviour. Perinatal depression disrupts these neurobiological processes. Yoga-based interventions offer a safe, cost-effective, culturally acceptable, non-pharmacological approach. Yoga has demonstrated efficacy in improving depression and anxiety in perinatal populations. Its mechanisms include modulation of the HPA axis, reduction of cortisol, enhancement of oxytocin release, and promotion of mindful interoceptive awareness - directly relevant to the neurobiological disruptions in PND. This randomised controlled trial evaluates the efficacy of a structured 3-week bedside yoga intervention as an add-on to treatment as usual in improving mother-infant bonding scores, depression scores, and peripheral oxytocin and cortisol levels in mothers with perinatal depression. The study additionally explores the baseline neural correlates of mother-infant bonding using Event Related Potentials (ERP) and functional MRI (fMRI) of the brain.

Background: The gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression are both global public health issues with high prevalence. Non-perinatal diabetes mellitus and depression are confirmed to have reciprocal influence, which is bidirectional relationship. However, there are still no any confirmations of relationship in the perinatal period. The reason could be that these kinds of studies mostly had been done for postpartum depression, they had rarely been discussed with a clearly sequential influence between gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression. Additionally, there have not been so many Asian countries which been done this kind of studies, therefore, this study will focus on the relationship of gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression. Purpose: This study will discuss the bidirectional relationship of gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression. In the other words, the prenatal depression influences on gestational diabetes mellitus, and vice versa. Those changeable factors, such as social support, health behavior, prenatal body index, weight gain during pregnancy, perinatal complications…etc, will be tested for whether they could be regulators or not between the gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression.Afterwards, a part of participants with diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus will receive the intervention of health education to influence the health behavior, then depression and other obstetrics and gynecological results will be tested for effects.

This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the Maya Perinatal Cognitive Behavioral Skills App, a novel app for pregnant and postpartum individuals experiencing difficulties with mood, anxiety, or stress. Participants will complete the 12-module app to learn evidence-based strategies previously shown to help manage mood and anxiety. Assessments will include app feedback questionnaires, feedback interviews, a daily symptom tracker, and symptom measures. The study investigators hypothesizes that participants will find content to be helpful in developing skills to manage anxiety and mood difficulties during the perinatal period, and that the app interface, session structure, and pacing will be acceptable and feasible for this population. It is further hypothesized that increased Maya Perinatal Cognitive Behavioral Skills App use, engagement, and satisfaction will be associated with lower self-reported anxiety and mood symptoms.

This is a randomized controlled trial with an intervention of Center M compared to treatment as usual. Center M consists of weekly digital one-hour group sessions led by a trained therapist aligned with mindfulness based cognitive therapy. Changes in perinatal depression symptoms will be compared between groups.

The goal of this observational study is to explore the impact of pregnancy depression on infant feeding, and to explore the two-way relationship between postpartum depression and infant feeding. Participants will be asked to finish questionnaires four times (24 weeks of pregnancy to before delivery, 2 month postpartum, 4 month postpartum, 6 month postpartum).

Doulas are trained individuals who offer informational, emotional, and physical support to their pregnant, birthing, and postpartum clients. The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a new intervention (called "Doula Link") is feasible to implement and acceptable to both doulas and their clients. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Is Doula Link feasible to implement and acceptable to doulas and their clients? * What are the preliminary differences in depression and anxiety between individuals working with doulas who received Doula Link compared to those who did not receive Doula Link? Researchers will compare "Doula Link" to usual doula practice to see if Doula Link is feasible and has potential to improve mental health outcomes in postpartum individuals. Doulas will be randomly assigned to either receive "Doula Link" or continue with their practice as usual. Participating doulas assigned to Doula Link will receive training mental health and implementing an intervention called "Our Babies and Us"; receive access to a toolkit; receive access to perinatal psychiatrists and referral specialists for consultations; receive access to a support group All participating doulas will be invited to complete surveys about their experience with Doula Link (if assigned to that group) and their experience providing care for their clients. All participating clients (pregnant and postpartum individuals) will be invited to complete surveys about their experiences with their doulas, their own mental health, and their experiences with the health system.

IMPRINT strengthens maternal and child health by screening, treating and preventing maternal perinatal depression, the most common complication of pregnancy and the child's first 1000 days. It is associated with poor pregnancy outcome and perinatal mortality and has adverse consequences on physical and mental development of the child. Yet, only 7-28% of women with perinatal depression worldwide receive appropriate evidence-based care. This is astounding given that the need of investing on mental health is widely recognized and low-intensity interventions not requiring costly mental health professionals have been shown to be effective. IMPRINT improves the effectiveness, reliability, safety, appropriateness, equity and efficiency of routine health care provided for the mother and the child during the child's first 1000 days of life. The investigators 1) have adapted into the gender-, country-, and cultural-context an existing evidence-based, low-intensity pregnancy intervention targeting maternal perinatal depression (online CBT-based therapy) (iloodottaa.fi); 2) test in cluster-randomised trial the short- and long-term efficacy of the intervention in women who report clinically relevant, subthreshold or more severe symptoms in an early pregnancy depression screen; 3) study biological, psychological and social determinants of depressive symptom severity, comorbidities and response to interventions. The study recruits women from 58 antenetal clinics in the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Keski-Uusimaa, Kuopio and Lohja and aims at recruiting 500 women to the intervention and 500 women to the control arms. Because of low recruitment rate, the cluster-randomized clinical trial design was changed to a single-arm clinical trial. All pregnant mothers who meet the inclusion criteria are eligible to participate in the CBT-intervention. In parallel with the change in study design, recruitment expanded to cover all antenatal clinical in the well-being services counties: Helsinki, Vantaa and Kerava, Central Uusimaa, Western Uusimaa (Lohja), Eastern Finland, and Pirkanmaa. Amendment to HUS ethical committee, approval date: June 26 2024; Amendment to HUS research permit, approval date: August 8 2024; Approvals from the counties participating in the study, approval dates: by October 31 2024.

This trial will assess the safety, feasibility, acceptability, usability and agreement with validated scales of an automated mood monitoring App (TrueBlue), in adult, perinatal participants (recruited between 12 weeks of pregnancy and 12 weeks post-partum), recruited across multiple sites in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom (UK). An initial within-study pilot phase will assess key aspects of the study including recruitment rate, usability issues and a detailed understanding of any device related adverse events; prior to full recruitment of a total 125 participants over a total 14-month period.

We are studying a treatment for depression called accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) among pregnant and postpartum individuals. TMS is a focal, non-invasive form of brain stimulation that is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for depression. Typically, traditional TMS involves daily treatments for 6-8 weeks. In this study, we will offer an accelerated form of TMS that involves multiple daily treatments for 5 days.

The perinatal period (pregnancy and the first postnatal year) (O'Hara \& Wisner, 2014) involves important changes and considerable challenges for parents (Milgrom \& Gemmill, 2015). As a result, perinatal mental health (PMH) disorders are highly prevalent. It is estimated that 1 in 5 women meet criteria for mental health disorders during the perinatal period (Van Damme et al., 2018). These psychological problems not only significantly impact (expectant) mother's own wellbeing, but also that of their children, partners, and their support networks. Additionally, PMH problems are associated with significant financial burden. For instance, In the UK perinatal depression and anxiety are estimated to cost approximately £8.1 billion per annual birth cohort (Bauer, 2015). Prevention of these problems is therefore essential. Unfortunately, in up to 75% of women symptoms of depressive or anxiety disorders are not detected timely, and only 10% of these women receive appropriate help (Kingston et al., 2015). This study proposes a novel approach to intervention by investigating the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments for (expectant) mothers identified to be at moderate risk of developing perinatal depression based on a novel statistical risk modeling approach. Specifically, we will investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of (a) an online self-help program and (b) a brief face-to-face (FTF) intervention for expectant mothers with a moderate risk of developing perinatal depression, compared to (c) standard care (treatment as usual). We expect both active treatments to be superior compared to standard care and similar in effectiveness to each other. In addition, we expect both online self-help and the brief FTF intervention to be more cost-effective compared to usual care. Moreover, we will also investigate the effects of the three treatments on a range of other important outcomes, participants' satisfaction with the treatments, the credibility of the treatments and expected effects as rated by patients. Finally, in a small qualitative study, we will investigate the subjective experiences of participants in the brief FTF intervention specifically.

This study is part of the e-Perinatal project, funded by the European Research Council. This research project will follow the first three phases recommended by the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions (Skivington et al., 2021). The primary aim is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of implementing an innovative, personalized mobile health (mHealth) intervention designed for the universal prevention of perinatal mental disorders. Using a pilot, two-arm, cluster-randomized hybrid type 1 clinical trial, the study will assess key implementation outcomes and preliminary effectiveness indicators. The findings will inform the design of a future large clinical trial, intending to evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and implementation of the intervention as part of maternal care.

This hybrid effectiveness-implementation project will allow the team to evaluate and refine implementation in preparation for future multisite trials to ultimately move the Evidence-Based Intervention (EBI) to scale among diverse populations. The plan is to enroll 120 at-risk pregnant and postpartum women from rural, urban, and Latino populations. Using a randomized preference design to also evaluate patient and sociocultural factors in participation and symptom trajectory. Using the Implementation Research Logic Model, the team will evaluate the implementation feasibility and acceptability of a remote-access and on-demand MBCT PD prevention intervention that is integrated within maternal clinical care settings using an existing patient portal. Successful achievement of the study aims will result in a refined implementation protocol for future studies that are sufficiently powered to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated Digital Mental Health Technology and to estimate the cost/benefit ratio

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if CareMom, a mobile app-based cognitive behavioral therapy program works to prevent perinatal depression among Chinese mothers. The main questions the trial aims to answer are: 1. Does CareMom lower depression scores after an 8-week intervention? 2. Does CareMom lower depression scores at 6 weeks after childbirth? 3. How satisfied are participants with CareMom? 4. What unfavorable events, if any, are associated with the use of CareMom? Researchers will compare CareMom to a matched attention control (a mobile app-based program that offers participants a similar level of interaction and daily activities) to see if CareMom works to prevent perinatal depression. Participants will: 1. Engage in the CareMom program or a relaxation training program every day for 8 weeks 2. Complete a series of online questionnaire tests before and after the 8-week intervention. 3. Report any discomfort experienced throughout the study period.

Pregnant and postpartum individuals often have difficulty sleeping and these sleep problems can negatively impact both the parent and infant. Research suggests that pregnant individuals prefer non-medication-based treatment for their sleep difficulties but there is a lack of research on the success of sleep treatment during pregnancy. Currently, there are two main non-medical treatments for sleep difficulties available. The first, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), is the first treatment recommended for insomnia and has been found to successfully treat insomnia during pregnancy and the postpartum period. In addition, shortened sessions of CBT for insomnia have also been found to successfully reduce sleep difficulties. The second option is sleep hygiene education which is the most commonly offered treatment for sleep difficulties and has been found to improve sleep problems. The present study will compare the effectiveness of a CBT for insomnia group workshop to a Sleep Hygiene group workshop.

Perinatal depression and anxiety (PDA) are the leading causes of maternal mortality in developed countries. Women with a history of depression have a 20 fold higher risk of PDA at subsequent pregnancies. The adverse outcomes extend beyond maternal well-being to long-term deficits in children and families. The gut-brain axis is a newly recognized key player in mental health disorders. Specifically, the microbial composition of the gut along with their metabolites are directly involved in disease onset and course. Recent clinical studies have identified diet as the most powerful environmental factor in manipulating gut microbiome. Given vulnerability and resistance of pregnant women to pharmacotherapy, particularly in those with a predisposition to mood disorders, as well as pregnant women's high motivation and commitment to improving gestational diet, a dietary/supplemental intervention to 'optimize' gut microbiome, is a favored approach in disease management. The study investigators aim to exploit microbial responsiveness to diet together with this maternal motivation, to alter the risk and severity of a universal public health concern that has dire and long-term consequences for new moms and their children. The investigators of this trial, will first study the challenges in pursuing a study aimed at changing the microbiome of pregnant women with a history of mood disorders. Pregnant women in their second trimester will be recruited. Each will be assigned or randomized to one of four groups that will use a combination of diet, supplementation with probiotics, fish oil or no intervention. Each participant will meet with the study team virtually every 3 months until 1 year after delivery. At each study visit participants will be required to complete some questionnaires about their food intake, mood, and other health related measures and will provide a stool sample using the stool collection kits provided. The findings from this study will help strategize for a larger study that will allow for comparison of the effects of diet, and/or supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty Acids (O3FA) and probiotics on the microbiome and the onset and severity of PDA.

The goal of this observation study is to investigate the mental health status of women experiencing their first pregnancy, with particular attention to anxiety and depression symptoms, feelings of loneliness, and the quality of defense mechanisms employed.

The SMART app is a mobile application based psychosocial parenting intervention containing educational materials (articles, videos, audios, podcasts) on parenting, an integrated peer support chat function with experienced mothers and an integrated forum for interaction with other mother participants. The goal of this interventional study is to test the effectiveness of a mobile-app health based intervention, SMART, mothers in the perinatal period. The main questions this study aims to answer are: 1. What is the effect of a mobile-based health intervention, SMART, on maternal outcomes? 2. What is the effect of a mobile-based health intervention, SMART, on infant outcomes? 3. What is the cost-effectiveness of using SMART as compared to standard routine care? Researchers will compare results with a control group that will undergo standard routine care.