According to a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, all pregnant and breast-feeding women should take a supplement with adequate iodide. It turns out that many American women may be marginally iodine deficient, [...]
While postpartum depression (PPD) affects about 10%-15% of women, most women with PPD do not receive any treatment. Over the last decade, we have made progress in increasing awareness of postpartum mental health issues; however, there are still significant obstacles to obtaining treatment. Women are not able to find appropriate treaters or cannot access care in a timely fashion, especially in more remote areas. They may not have reliable childcare and thus cannot attend their own appointments. Or they may simply be too depressed or anxious to leave their homes.
Many women transitioning into the menopause request medical advice on ways to improve their quality of life and to relieve the symptoms associated with the menopausal transition. With concerns regarding the long-term use of estrogen replacement therapy, there has been interest in the use of non-hormonal strategies to manage these symptoms.
With many states now considering the legalization of medical marijuana, there seems to be a growing sense that marijuana is relatively safe and may, in some cases, be more attractive or effective than traditional pharmacologic interventions. We have witnessed this shift in attitude in our clinic, where many of our clinicians have been surprised to hear women ask questions about the dangers of using antidepressants and other medications during pregnancy while at the same time feeling relatively comfortable with their use of marijuana in the same setting.
Previous studies have identified primiparity as a significant risk factor for postpartum psychosis and especially bipolar affective disorders. Â This is the first study to quantify the risk of psychiatric illness after the first as compared to subsequent pregnancies.
It is estimated that suicide accounts for about 10% of all maternal deaths. While we have a fair amount of information to help us predict which women are at risk for depression during pregnancy and [...]
We would like to thank you for your continuing support of the National Pregnancy Registry for Atypical Antipsychotics (NPRAA) at the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. We are grateful for all the referrals made to the Registry as our numbers continue to grow every day. Given the Registry’s successful enrollment, we are pleased to announce our plan to release preliminary data at an upcoming conference in June, the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) Annual Meeting.
SSRIs were not associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.
Various instruments have been used to detect postpartum depression (PPD). However, rather than waiting for depression to occur, can we possibly identify women during pregnancy who will go on to develop postpartum illness? If we [...]
In 2012, it was estimated that more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. There are undoubtedly many factors which may contribute to childhood obesity; a new study suggests that maternal depression may increase the risk of being overweight in low-income children.
