Talk therapy with other moms effective treatment of PPD: McMaster study

A new study from McMaster University shows the success of talk therapy with other moms for the treatment of those battling postpartum depression (PPD).

Researchers worked with 183 mothers over a year and a half period that coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and found that those who worked with peers through talk therapy were 11 times more likely to enter into remission for postpartum depression.

While postpartum depression affects up to one in five new mothers, only 10 per cent will receive evidence-based care.

“This is the first time anyone has shown that peers can deliver effective group online
psychotherapy for mothers with postpartum depression,” says Ryan Van Lieshout, lead author of the study, associate professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural
Neurosciences at McMaster University and the Canada Research Chair in Perinatal Mental
Health.

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The study had the group of mothers taking part receive either nine weeks of group cognitive behavioural therapy that would be run online by other mothers who had since recovered from PPD, or treatment as usual.

Those who were chosen to receive treatment as usual would later receive the peer-delivered treatment after being moved off of a waitlist.

Recovered mothers who would run the CBT training underwent a three-day program and would observe the nine-week intervention delivered by experts in the hospital where it was developed.

Researchers say that those who were in the CBT group experienced significant improvements in postpartum depression and anxiety, as well as greater social support, less worry about their child and improvements in their child’s temperament.

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They say these improvements persisted for up to five months after treatment began.

Of those who were in the CBT group, only six per cent of participants met the criteria for major depressive disorder by the end of the nine week trial compared to 64 per cent at the beginning.

Higher retention rates of the disorder would be reported by the waitlist group, with 43 per cent still meeting criteria compared to 66 per cent at its start.

“As somebody who has recovered, if I had this support nine and 11 years ago, I might not have had postpartum depression with my second child. I would have had resources and the opportunity to try to get ahead of it if I could,” said Lee-Anne Mosselman-Clarke, one of the peer-facilitators.

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