Providers lend inconsistent care to depressed pregnant women

According to a study, pregnant women who were depressed were provided inconsistent care by medical health providers. For the study, six clinics are Michigan was considered with twenty medical providers. The study revealed that the providers were unsure how to deal with pregnant women and hence the care provided turned out to be inconsistent. During the study, the team of researchers led by Dr. Christie Palladino who is an ob/gyn at the Georgia Health Sciences University, they found that the clinics did not provide any kind of system-level support. The decisions that were being made were not efficient and the decision makers were always under a cloud of doubt.

Providers unsure how to deal with depressed women

Palladino further said that the intention of the study was to understand how providers dealt with women who were depressed during pregnancy. The report revealed that providers felt uncomfortable and troubled while deciding the treatment for these patients. Unfortunately, the decisions that were made were inconsistent and varied from one patient to another even when the conditions were same. However, Pallidino continued, there is a long time to go before the results of such surveys are put into practice. The inconsistency in treatment caused depressed women to be further burdened by isolation and confusion.

Further steps by the team of researchers

The study throws light on the less than efficient system of dealing with mental requirements of patients. The providers who were interviewed conceded to feeling discomfort while discussing the mental health of the patient with other mental health care provides as well as the patients themselves. Palladino intends to take up the issue of training the providers and making them aware of different facts about the frequency of the disease, causes and treatments. This problem is also being addressed through Education Discovery Institute of GHSU. A pilot program is being conducted to train providers in skills required to deal with prenatal depression in women.

With an intention of fighting this problem, Palladino and her team intend to apply for a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration in order to evaluate the existing curriculum not only in Michigan but also in other states as well. The ob-gyn has been researching this problem since a while. Her previous research brought to light the fact that the necessity to be hospitalized was higher in depressed women than in women WO went through their pregnancy period with a happier frame of mind.