Mitigating psychiatric disorder relapse in pregnancy during pandemic
Dr. Lee S. Cohen, Director of the Ammon-Pinizzotto Center for Women's Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, recently shared his insights on mitigating psychiatric relapse during pregnancy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic with Ob.Gyn News on August 28th, 2020 In a previous column, I addressed some of the issues that quickly arose in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications for reproductive psychiatry. These issues ranged from the importance of sustaining [...]
Can Bright Light Therapy Be Used for the Treatment of Depression During Pregnancy?
Every Wednesday, we have the pleasure of holding virtual rounds with other clinicians to discuss important topics in reproductive psychiatry. So many great questions! Last week, one of our participants asked about using light therapy for the treatment of depression during pregnancy. This is a topic we haven’t covered for nearly a decade, so it seemed like a good time to revisit the topic. Despite data to support the reproductive safety [...]
Why We Need Specialized Perinatal Mental Health Programs
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) now recommends screening for perinatal depression and anxiety, stating that “clinicians screen patients at least once during the perinatal period for depression and anxiety symptoms using a standard, validated tool.” Approximately 40 states have instituted guidelines and recommendations regarding screening for perinatal depression; however, we are still gathering information on how successful these recommendations have been in terms identifying and treating women [...]
Assessing the Reproductive Safety of Antidepressants: Can Non-Randomized Studies Provide the Information We Need?
Perinatal psychiatry is a field in which we treat vulnerable patients, a mother and her child, where both the illness we are treating and the treatments we prescribe have the potential to affect the outcome. There is a deep and compelling literature that describes the negative impact of postpartum depression upon children, and we are constantly learning more about the short and long-term effects of depression and anxiety during pregnancy on [...]
Fertility Treatment in the Midst of a Pandemic
In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Massachusetts, centers providing infertility services were forced to hit the pause button, leaving many couples in the United States in the lurch. On March 17, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) issued guidelines for fertility specialists which consisted of five key recommendations, including the suspension of new treatment cycles and the cancellation of embryo transfers, as well as postponing elective surgeries. Given the [...]
Pilot Study of Neurosteroid Ganaxolone for Menopausal Depression
Over the last few years we have heard a great deal about neurosteroids, also known as neuroactive steroids. This class of compounds are steroid hormones produced in the brain and endocrine tissues which can modulate neurotransmission. Animal studies have demonstrated that neurosteroids have a broad range of activities, including antidepressant, anxiolytic, sedative, analgesic, anticonvulsant, neuroprotective, and neuroproliferative effects. Several different neurosteroids have been tested as anticonvulsants and anaesthetic agents; however, we [...]