Health Affairs Journal Highlights Two SSW Papers in Special Issue on Perinatal Mental Health

The October issue of Health Affairs highlighting Perinatal Mental Health & More features two important Illinois School of Social Work papers, led by Dr. Karen Tabb‘s research team, including PhD student Wan-Jung Hsieh, assistant professor, Mai Hoang, and alumna, María Piñeros-Leaño.

Screening for perinatal depression is a clinical approach to identifying women in need of mental health diagnoses, referral, and treatment. Many states mandate screening for perinatal depression, but it remains unclear whether screening leads to increased access to treatment and better health outcomes. The first paper titled, Patients’ Perceptions Of Perinatal Depression Screening: A Qualitative Study led by Wan-Jung Hsieh, aimed to identify how women from diverse backgrounds perceive the quality of perinatal depression screening and whether the perceived quality affected their decisions about mental health care.

The second paper, titled Meta-Analysis Of Antenatal Depression And Adverse Birth Outcomes In US Populations, 2010–20 examines how untreated depression presents a distinct set of risks for pregnancy complications. Past studies have connected antenatal depression with adverse birth outcomes. The purpose of this study was to conduct an updated systematic review and meta-analysis examining the relationship between depression during pregnancy and associated adverse birth outcomes in US populations during the period 2010–20.

These articles can be found on pages 1560 and 1612 of the issue.