Effectiveness of self-help psychological interventions for treating and preventing postpartum depression: a meta-analysis

Lin, Ping-Zhen; Xue, Jiao-Mei; Yang, Bei; Li, Meng; Cao, Feng-Lin

doi:10.1007/s00737-018-0835-0

Review Article
Published: 04 April 2018

Effectiveness of self-help psychological interventions for treating and preventing postpartum depression: a meta-analysis

Ping-Zhen Lin¹,
Jiao-Mei Xue²,
Bei Yang¹,
Meng Li¹ &
Feng-Lin Cao¹

Archives of Women's Mental Health volume 21, pages 491–503 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Previous studies have reported different effect sizes for self-help interventions designed to reduce postpartum depression symptoms; therefore, a comprehensive quantitative review of the research was required. A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of self-help interventions designed to treat and prevent postpartum depression, and identified nine relevant randomized controlled trials. Differences in depressive symptoms between self-help interventions and control conditions, changes in depressive symptoms following self-help interventions, and differences in postintervention recovery and improvement rates between self-help interventions and control conditions were assessed in separate analyses. In treatment trials, depression scores continued to decrease from baseline to posttreatment and follow-up assessment in treatment subgroups. Changes in treatment subgroups’ depression scores from baseline to postintervention assessment were greater relative to those observed in prevention subgroups. Self-help interventions produced larger overall effects on postpartum depression, relative to those observed in control conditions, in posttreatment (Hedges’ g = 0.51) and follow-up (Hedges’ g = 0.32) assessments; and self-help interventions were significantly more effective, relative to control conditions, in promoting recovery from postpartum depression. Effectiveness in preventing depression did not differ significantly between self-help interventions and control conditions.The findings suggested that self-help interventions designed to treat postpartum depression reduced levels of depressive symptoms effectively and decreased the risk of postpartum depression.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by grants from the Science and Technology Major Project of Shandong Province (grant number: 2015ZDXX0801A01).

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School of Nursing, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, People’s Republic of China
Ping-Zhen Lin, Bei Yang, Meng Li & Feng-Lin Cao
Society and Law School, Shandong Women’s University, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China
Jiao-Mei Xue

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Ping-Zhen Lin
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Jiao-Mei Xue
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Bei Yang
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Meng Li
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Feng-Lin Cao
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Correspondence to Feng-Lin Cao.

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Lin, PZ., Xue, JM., Yang, B. et al. Effectiveness of self-help psychological interventions for treating and preventing postpartum depression: a meta-analysis. Arch Womens Ment Health 21, 491–503 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0835-0

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Received: 19 October 2017
Accepted: 21 March 2018
Published: 04 April 2018
Issue Date: October 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0835-0

Keywords

Self-help
Depression
Postpartum
Meta-analysis
Randomized controlled trial