Last Friday, a new clinical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics was released encouraging pediatricians to screen mothers for postpartum depression, to use community resources for the treatment and referral of the depressed mother, and to provide support for the mother-child relationship. Estimated rates of depression among pregnant and postpartum women can range between 5 percent and 25 percent.
Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children, a 2009 report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, advocates a new vision for depression care that would provide comprehensive services not just to adults, but to their children as well.
A new report Women’s Health Research: Progress, Promise, and Pitfalls includes a review of the status of research on depression in women and how research findings are communicated to the public.
Links to more information about these and other National Academies reports that may also interest you are listed below.
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Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children: Opportunities to Improve Identification, Treatment, and Prevention Depression is a widespread condition affecting approximately 7.5 million parents in the U.S. each year and may be putting at least 15 million children at risk for adverse health outcomes. Based on evidentiary studies, major depression in either parent can…  |
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Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise Even though slightly over half of the U.S. population is female, medical research historically has neglected the health needs of women. However, over the past two decades, there have been major changes in government support of women’s health research–in… |
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Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs Cancer care today often provides state-of-the-science biomedical treatment, but fails to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the illness. This failure can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely… |
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Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions: Quality Chasm Series Each year, more than 33 million Americans receive health care for mental or substance-use conditions, or both. Together, mental and substance-use illnesses are the leading cause of death and disability for women, the highest for men ages 15-44, and the second… |
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Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care Among the issues confronting America is long-term care for frail, older persons and others with chronic conditions and functional limitations that limit their ability to care for themselves. |
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Children’s Health, the Nation’s Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health Children’s health has clearly improved over the past several decades. Significant and positive gains have been made in lowering rates of infant mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and accidental causes, improved access to health care, and… |