Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Maternal Depression

Depression related to pregnancy frequently presents postpartum depression, which has deteriorating and lasting negative effects, not only on infant and child well being but also on mother's and father's mental health (Nancy K et al 2009). It is therefore important to introduce interventions aiming to improve mental health of mothers that could minimize the risk of diseases, and have positive effect child's on physical and psychological developmental wellbeing. Therefore, this project has been designed to assess the effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Postnatal Depression in Pakistan.

Prevalence of depression in the postnatal period is 10% to 17 % in western world ( O 'Hara and Swain 1996; Josseffson et al 2001; Yoshida et al 2001) and 23% to 36% in the developing world (Rahman et al 2003; Patel et al 2002; Husain et al 2006). In developed countries, studies indicate that maternal depression is associated with long-term emotional, cognitive and behavioral problem in children. There is evidence of link between maternal psychopathology to physical health of child. Research evidence also indicates that long-term negative impact of postnatal depression is on the mother's mental health, on infant's development and on the marital relationship (Reay, Fisher, Robertson, Adams and Owen 2005). because of high prevalence of maternal depression in low income countries like Pakistan, the present study is designed to test the effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for women with maternal depression. The participants will be recruited from Civil hospital Karachi and also from three different communities. total 50 participants will be recruited and randomized to 2 groups: either intervention or TAU group. Assessment will be done on baseline, after completion of intervention and 3 months after completion of intervention. Assessment will include Edinburg Postnatal depression scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and Rosenberg Self Esteem scale. Participants in intervention group will receive 12 sessions of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)