Responsive eHealth Intervention for Perinatal Depression in Healthcare Settings

PROJECT SUMMARY Perinatal depressionexperienced by at leastof pregnant and postpartum womenis recognized as the most common complication of childbirth and as having extremely serious consequencesincluding significant suffering for pregnant women new mothers and their familiesand adverse impacts on infant developmentUnfortunatelythere are many barriers that make it difficult for women with perinatal depression to access clinic based mental health treatmentsand participation is lowTreatment uptake is limited by psychological barriersstigmafeelings of failureand embarrassmentknowledge barrierspoor understanding about impact of perinatal depression on infant healthuncertainty about where to get treatmentinfrastructure barriersfear of negative judgment from care providersavoidance of prescription medications while breastfeedingphysical barriers in rural settingstoo few care providersunacceptable logistical demands on timetransportationand childcareand provider level barriersinadequate skillsfear of liabilitydearth of treatment optionsand inadequate reimbursementTo address this needwe obtained NIMH fundingRMHto develop and test the MomMoodBooster programMMBan innovative Web based program for treating postpartum depressionPPDBased on cognitive behavioral therapyCBTand incorporating multimedia modeling and engaging activitiesMMB is designed to enable women to identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviors and to develop a personal action plan to make helpful changesMMB also has an administrative website designed for use by both project managers and supportive phone coaches to monitor the overall progress of participantsIn our SBIR Phase I grantRMHwe began a redesign of MMB so that it could be used more effectively as a product for delivering PPD treatment by practical healthcare delivery organizationsSpecificallywe enhanced the underlying database architectureand the related administration website interfaceto make it easier for multiple organizations in multiple settings to use MMBIn our proposed SBIR Phase IIwe propose to complete the process of making a commercial ready productMMBthat fits the workflow and staffing of healthcare organizationsSpecificallywe propose to finish the enhancement of the database architecture and its administrative siteto expand MMB to include prenatal as well as postpartum depressed womenand to deliver MMB using a new responsive design technology so that women will be able to use it interchangeably with any internet accessible computer devicedesktoplaptoptabletsmartphoneFinallywe plan to use aarm randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of MMBcompared to treatment as usual in a large healthcare setting PROJECT NARRATIVE Perinatal depressionexperienced by at leastof pregnant and postpartum womenis recognized as the most common complication of childbirthIn this projectwe plan to complete the process of making MomMoodBoosterMMBa Web based cognitive behavioral depression interventioninto a commercialready productMMBthat fits the workflow and staffing of healthcare organizations and is designed for both prenatal and postpartum women who are depressedWe will also conduct aarm randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of MMBcompared to treatment as usual in a large healthcare setting