Juggling work and home responsibilities overwhelm most moms. Hence, it is no surprise that many of them get depressed at some point in their lives.
Some of the causes of depression in women are the following, according to Helguide.org:
- Premenstrual Conditions
- Pregnancy
- Infertility
- Postpartum Depression
- Perimenopause
- Menopause
- Other health problems
An extraordinary treatment will soon become available to those mothers who just can't beat the blues. According to Science World Report, recent study findings unveiled the availability of a new depression treatment for moms. Readers can read about these findings on a journal, called "Academic Pediatrics." Researchers from The University of California-Davis were the brains behind the findings yielded.
"Motivating Our Mothers" or "MOM" is a pediatrician-based depression treatment customized for moms. By participating in this program, moms seek treatment from pediatricians to treat depression instead of going to their own physicians, according to Science World Report.
"This is one of the first studies to take on the role of the pediatrician in not only identifying depression in mothers but also helping them take the next step," said Erik Fernandez Garcia, the lead researcher of the depression treatment study, in an interview with Psych Central. "The hope is that once we've refined the intervention and presented it to pediatricians, they will feel more comfortable about addressing depression with mothers of their patients."
Garcia and his team of researchers plan to work on studying a future depression treatment meant for Spanish-speaking moms.
"If I can give pediatricians an efficient intervention to implement in their practices, we can really increase our ability to identify women with depression," the medical practitioner said. "We can help them feel better and the kids will have better outcomes as well, so it has a positive effect on everybody's well-being."
Myrna M. Weissman, an epidemiology and psychiatry professor from Columbia University, stressed the importance of perseverance in treating depression. She told WebMD, "Treatment of depression is trial and error, but many patients give up very early and decide they can't be helped."
Weissman added, "This study showed that improvement is possible even after several unsuccessful tries, and that successful treatment of the parent has a long-lasting impact on the child."
"Remission of mothers' depression, regardless of its timing, appears to be related to decreases in problem behaviors and symptoms in their children over the year after remission," WebMD reported in the March 15 edition of "American Journal of Psychiatry."
