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Treating Prepartum Depression to Improve Infant Developmental Outcomes: A Study of Diabetes in Pregnancy

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Abstract

Whether and how the co-occurrence of depression and diabetes in pregnancy may worsen infant development has not been reported. Pregnant women with diabetes and with (n = 34) or without (n = 34) major depressive disorder (MDD) were followed during pregnancy and 6-months postpartum. The MDD subset received randomly assigned treatment with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or supportive counseling (SC). Depression severity was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); infant developmental outcomes were measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) and its Behavior Rating Scale (BRS). Infants of women with MDD had lower BRS scores (p = .02). Reduction in depression scores was associated with better infant outcomes on the BSID and BRS (p values <.03). These preliminary findings suggest depression occurring in pregnant women with diabetes is associated with poorer infant development and improvement in prepartum depression is associated with improvement in measures of infant development.

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Acknowledgments

Source of Financial support: NIH grants K24DK059364 and R01DK036452. The authors report no other declarations of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid, Medical School Box 8134, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    Tassy Hayden, Dana C. Perantie, Billy D. Nix, Linda D. Barnes, Dragan M. Svrakic, Jeffrey F. Scherrer, Patrick J. Lustman & Tamara Hershey

  2. Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Tamara Hershey

  3. Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Tamara Hershey

  4. Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Dorothea J. Mostello

  5. St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, MO, USA

    William L. Holcomb

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  1. Tassy Hayden
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  2. Dana C. Perantie
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  3. Billy D. Nix
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  9. Patrick J. Lustman
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Correspondence to Patrick J. Lustman.

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Hayden, T., Perantie, D.C., Nix, B.D. et al. Treating Prepartum Depression to Improve Infant Developmental Outcomes: A Study of Diabetes in Pregnancy. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 19, 285–292 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9294-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9294-8

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