Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

While the birth of a new baby can be one of the most joyous times in a woman's life, for many, this can also be a time of significant suffering. Indeed, postpartum depression (PPD) affects 20% of women in the first year after delivery. PPD is associated with suffering for women and their families however its long-term impact on the children of these woman may be the most costly of all. Fortunately, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for PPD and one that is preferred over medications by many women. However, while CBT can lead to improvements in mothers, it is unclear if CBT for mothers can produce similar improvements in their infants. The purpose of this study is to determine if group CBT treatment for women with PPD improves her baby's brain function over a 9-week period. We recruited 80 mother and their infants (40 mothers with PPD, and 40 mothers free of PPD and matched on infant age and family SES). Mothers with PPD received 9-weeks of group CBT. Brain activity was assessed in infants at two-time points a) baseline for healthy controls/pre-CBT for infants of women with PPD and b) 9-weeks post baseline/post-CBT. Before CBT, infants of mothers with PPD exhibited brain activity that has been linked to an increased risk for mental disorders and was significantly different from the activity in healthy control babies. However, following maternal treatment, we observed adaptive changes in brain activity such that infants of women treated for PPD were no different than infants of health control women. No changes over time were noted in healthy control infants. These findings suggest that following maternal receipt of CBT, the infant brain appears to 'catch up' to the infants never exposed to maternal depression. Therefore, treating mothers with CBT for PPD may represent a powerful opportunity to prevent mental illness from being transmitted from mother to child and boost the mental health of the population.