Perinatal Depression Treatment in a Pediatric Setting- Pilot Phase

This research project consists of two phases that are designed, in sequence, to adapt standard collaborative care depression treatment to the unique needs of low-income depressed postpartum women and to the pediatric setting where women will receive the treatment. These adaptations, in turn, are designed to improve maternal engagement in and adherence to depression treatment, the primary outcomes at this early stage of intervention development. Phase I is the initial pilot project in which the model will be developed. We will 1) adapt standard collaborative care depression models into the Mother-Infant Treatment Team (MITT) intervention and develop a procedure manual based on maternal and provider input, 2) pilot the MITT intervention with 10 depressed mothers to test the feasibility of implementing the model, and 3) evaluate the experiences of participating mothers and providers to revise and finalize MITT processes and procedures. Phase II will be an open label trial of MITT to determine whether MITT is associated with improved maternal engagement and adherence to depression treatment. We will pilot MITT with 10 mothers to determine the feasibility of implementing MITT. We will collect recruitment and logistical feasibility measures. We will also determine engagement and adherence rates to treatment as well as the effort required to engage women in treatment. We will determine mothers' and providers' perceptions of their experiences with MITT and will use all of this information to revise the MITT protocol in preparation for Phase II.