About this Research Topic

Background

Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) are the most common complication of childbirth with estimates for postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum anxiety (PPA) typically ranging from 10-25% worldwide. While awareness, resources, and screening rates have increased over time, there is still considerable work remaining both in the area of assessment and treatment of PMADs. Additionally, women require education and support as to the importance of maternal self-care, which is often neglected in the first year postpartum and possibly beyond. Future interventions should incorporate the optimization of self-care into their curriculum.

This Research Topic is focused on interventions that have demonstrated efficacy, or a lack of efficacy, in improving mood symptoms (including but not limited to depression and anxiety) and/or maternal functioning in the postpartum period. Collectively, the body of articles that comprise this special issue should describe interventions that appear to be effective - or ineffective - in at least one credible study.

We encourage Quantitative and high-quality Qualitative studies, Review Papers, Brief Reports and Commentaries describing and reporting evidence on:

• Interventions that have demonstrated efficacy in improving PMADs symptoms;
• Interventions that are potentially ineffective in treating PMADs symptoms;
• Interventions that appear to improve postpartum maternal functioning;
• Interventions that are potentially ineffective in improving postpartum maternal functioning;
• Articles addressing maternal functioning as an outcome are highly encouraged, as there is less literature in this area.

Keywords: maternal functioning, interventions, PMADs, perinatal, mood disorders, postpartum

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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