March 4 (UPI) —<\/span> People with depression and anxiety experience lingering symptoms of both disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, even if they opt to continue drug treatment for them, a study published Friday by the journal Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice found.<\/p>\n In addition, despite treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, a class of drugs commonly used for depression and anxiety, some people affected during and after pregnancy saw their symptoms worsen over time, the researchers said.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Even with treatment through pregnancy, 18% of the study participants had minimal depression symptoms, 50% had mild symptoms and 32% experienced clinically relevant depressive symptoms, meaning they severely impacted their daily lives and ability to perform activities, the data showed.<\/p>\n Symptom severity remained stable throughout pregnancy and during the postpartum period in most of the participants, according to the researchers.\n<\/p>\n Pregnant people taking SSRIs to treat their depression also were more likely to be overweight and experience infertility, migraines, thyroid disorders and asthma, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Pregnant people with a history of eating disorders had more severe and worsening depression, they said.<\/p>\n “We want to make sure we are treating pregnant women well and that depression is controlled,” study co-author Dr. Katherine Wisner told UPI in an email.\n<\/p>\n “Maternal depression is associated with preterm birth, hypertension, Caesarean delivery, low birth weight infants, [neo-natal intensive care] admission and behavioral problems in childhood,” said Wisner, a professor of psychiatry and of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.<\/p>\n Perinatal depression and anxiety affect about 20% of people during pregnancy and after delivery, research suggests.<\/p>\n An estimated 500,000 pregnancies in the United States each year involve people who have or will have psychiatric illness during pregnancy, the American Pregnancy Association estimates.\n<\/p>\n Depression impacts the health of the newborn, with babies born to depressed parents at increased risk for childhood developmental disorders, according to Wisner.<\/p>\n This study included 88 pregnant people who completed mental health assessments every four weeks from study entry until delivery and at six and 14 weeks postpartum, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Participants were enrolled at urban academic medical centers including Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, University of Texas-Galveston, University of Pittsburgh and a rural health center, the Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n “The physiological changes and the unique stressors of pregnancy affect symptom levels,” Wisner said.<\/p>\n “Women who decide to continue taking SSRI antidepressant medication during pregnancy should be monitored monthly with a depressive symptom and an anxiety symptom measure,” she said.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many pregnant people experience lingering depression and anxiety symptoms, despite treatment, according to a new study. Photo by DigitalMarketingAgency\/Pixabay March 4 (UPI) — People with depression and anxiety experience lingering symptoms of both disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, even if they opt to continue drug treatment for them, a study published Friday by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1010803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[5683,2682,5684,345,953,28,2348],"class_list":["post-1010802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-anxiety","tag-depression","tag-linger","tag-people","tag-pregnant","tag-study","tag-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Study:](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Study-Depression-anxiety-linger-in-some-pregnant-people-despite-treatment.jpg\" "\\"Study:")
\n<\/div>\nMany pregnant people experience lingering depression and anxiety symptoms, despite treatment, according to a new study. Photo by DigitalMarketingAgency\/Pixabay<\/p>\n