AUTHOR=Jester Jennifer M. , Riggs Jessica L. , Menke Rena A. , Alfafara Emily , Issa Meriam , Muzik Maria , Rosenblum Katherine L. 

TITLE=Randomized pilot trial of the “Mom Power” trauma- and attachment-informed multi-family group intervention in treating and preventing postpartum symptoms of depression among a health disparity sample

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1048511

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1048511

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Introduction</title><p>Perinatal depression, a common complication related to childbearing, impacts mothers, children, and families. Efficacious interventions reduce perinatal depression symptoms; effort is needed to prevent the onset of perinatal depression. To determine feasibility and preliminary efficacy in reducing perinatal depression, we conducted a community-based, randomized parallel open pilot trial of Mom Power, a group-based intervention to improve mental health and parenting in mothers with young children.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>Mom Power consists of 10 group sessions, focused on parenting, child development and self-care and three individual sessions, to build rapport and provide personalized referrals. Control group participants received psychoeducational mailings. Computer-based urn randomization assigned mothers with experiences of interpersonal violence, depression, or other traumatic experiences to Mom Power (68) or control (54).</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>At 3-months post-treatment, the 31 retained women assigned to Mom Power were half as likely to meet criteria for probable depression (26%) as the 22 women retained in the control group (55%), with treatment predicting lower incidence of probable depression (OR = 0.13, <italic>p</italic> = 0.015). Moreover, among the 23 women who did not meet criteria for depression diagnosis at baseline, no women in the treatment group developed depression (<italic>n</italic> = 0, 0%) compared to control group women (<italic>n</italic> = 3, 30%). Logistic regression controlling for selective attrition confirmed the treatment effect on preventing new onset of depression (OR = 0.029, <italic>p</italic> = 0.012).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>These findings support the use of Mom Power for both treatment and prevention of perinatal depression.</p></sec><sec id="sec40"><title>Clinical trial registration</title><p><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01554215" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01554215</ext-link>, NCT01554215.</p></sec>