Thesis Abstract

<p> The primary objective of the study is to determine the prevalence of maternal depressive and panic disorders in women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. To accomplish this, we set up a quality improvement project in the clinic to have clinic staff screen women for major depression and panic disorder. The screening is conducted by clinic staff at 3 different times during the course of care, twice during pregnancy (16 weeks and 36 weeks) and at the 6 week postpartum appointment. Data from these clinic questionnaires are then entered into a prospective database registry. There are two secondary objectives of this study. The first is to determine the effect of antenatal major depression on adverse pregnancy outcomes. To accomplish this, clinic staff asks women to participate in our study by signing consent/HIPPA forms. This consenting process allows us to use patient medical records from clinic visits and hospital admissions to obtain information on pregnancy outcomes. The second is to expand the registry to local obstetric clinics, including our maternal clinic at Harborview Medical Center and our community network clinics (University of Washington Provider Networks). A regional registry of this sort will be representative of the Seattle obstetric population and will allow us to accrue the large sample size necessary to answer questions regarding the role of major depression and anxiety in rare adverse birth outcomes, such as eclampsia. <br></p>

Thesis Overview