Researchers recruited 183 mothers from across Ontario from Aug. 2020 and Feb. 2022 to either receive nine weeks of group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered online from peers who had once experienced PPD and had since recovered, or to receive treatment as usual. The individuals in the treatment as usual group received the peer-delivered group CBT after being on a waitlist.

Participants in the peer-led CBT group manifested clinically significant improvements in postpartum depression and anxiety, as well as better social support, less anxiety about their child, and improvements in their infant’s temperament. These changes persisted up to five months after participants started treatment.

Positive Impact of Peer-Led CBT Program: Significantly Reduced Rates of Major Depressive Disorder in Participants

Sixty-four percent of participants in the treatment group met the criteria for major depressive disorder at time of enrollment, compared to six percent after receiving the nine-week peer-led CBT program. Sixty-six percent of participants in the waitlist group met the criteria for major depressive disorder at time of enrollment, compared to 43 percent nine weeks later.

In advance of the program, peer facilitators underwent a three-day training program for individuals with no prior formal psychiatric training and observed the nine-week intervention delivered by experts in the hospital setting which it was developed. Facilitators delivered the intervention online in pairs.

“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,” says Lee-Anne Mosselman-Clarke, who was one of the peer facilitators.

“I think the program allows for an openness in talking and hearing others’ experiences, which takes away a very large part of the shame and the guilt around struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety.”

Recent research by Van Lieshout showed group CBT for PPD delivered by public health nurses with little to no previous psychiatric training led to clinically significant improvements in depression and worry. The outcome was stable up to six months post-treatment.

The study was supported by the Ontario Brain Institute’s Growing Expertise in Evaluation and Knowledge Translation Program.

Reference :

1. Online peer-delivered group cognitive-behavioral therapy for postpartum depression – (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acps.13611)

Source: Eurekalert