Many pregnant women with depression are not receiving adequate treatment, if any, for their mental health condition, new study findings show according to Reuters Health. "This study and others suggest that most women with debilitating, depressive illness at a vulnerable developmental period are unlikely to be connected with adequate psychiatric treatment," write Dr. Heather A. Flynn and her colleagues. Previous studies have shown that up to 15 percent of women experience depression during pregnancy, which in turn greatly increases the risk of postpartum depression. Yet, several researchers have shown that depression goes undetected in 75 percent or more of cases. In a further exploration of the topic, Flynn, at the University of Michigan Medical School, and her colleagues in Ann Arbor studied 276 pregnant women who had a high risk of depression, based on their symptoms and depression history. They found that although 40 percent of the women had current depression or a history of major depression, only one in five (20 percent) was receiving any type of depression treatment. Also, less than half (43 percent) of those receiving treatment were being adequately treated with antidepressants, the investigators report in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry. --More
