Study finds depression in pregnancy, postpartum is overlooked and undertreated [Pharmacy.UCSF.edu]

About 10 to 20 percent of women suffer from new-onset depression during pregnancy or after giving birth. Untreated, the impact of such illness can be profound, ranging from substance abuse, poor prenatal care, and miscarriages to impaired infant bonding and developmental delays.

But a new study comparing the medical records of more than 6,000 such perinatal women—both during their pregnancies and postpartum—to those of about 57,000 non-pregnant women of the same ages (18 to 39 years) has found the perinatal group was significantly less likely to be diagnosed with depression.

In addition, even when the pregnant women were diagnosed with depression, the study found fewer than half received any treatment, versus 72 percent receiving treatment in the non-pregnant control group. Women suffering post-partum depression were similarly undertreated.

The study, senior-authored by Patrick Finley, PharmD, a faculty member in the School’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, was published online (ahead of print) in CNS Spectrums in November.

The study analyzed three years’ worth of data—2006 through 2009—from the California State Medicaid (Medi-Cal) program which, while rendered individually anonymous, included demographic, medical service, and prescription information.

The new findings provide key follow-up to a 2009 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Science, which concluded that the risks of untreated depression far exceeded those of antidepressant medications, both during pregnancy and postpartum. The IOM report called treatment rates for new mothers “alarmingly low,” but allowed that the evidence in that area was based on older data and small sample sizes.

[For more of this story, written by David Jacobson, go to http://pharmacy.ucsf.edu/news/...ked-and-undertreated]