# A Dyadic Approach to Perinatal Depression Treatment in Primary Care

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $194,375

## Abstract

Project Summary
Ten to 20% of women have depression in the perinatal period (pregnancy through one year postpartum),
especially low income racial /ethnic minority women, yet many do not receive appropriate mental health
treatment. Low parenting self-efficacy and impaired mother - infant interactions contribute to health-related
burden and negative maternal and child outcomes. Yet these parenting issues are not addressed in current
primary care-based perinatal depression treatments. Our team has developed, with user centered design
techniques, a brief version of the evidence based Promoting First Relationships (PFR) parenting intervention:
PFR-B. We now propose to test a comprehensive perinatal depression treatment - Maternal Infant and Dyadic
Care (MInD) - that includes PFR-Brief in perinatal collaborative care, an evidence based intervention for
perinatal depression. MInD will be responsive to the needs of women in primary care settings where most
underserved women obtain prenatal care. By focusing on important mediators of worsened postpartum
depression (decreased parenting self-efficacy and impaired mother-infant interaction), MInD has the potential
to improve maternal outcomes, and in the long run, child outcomes. Our project specific aims are: Aim 1 To
compare MInD vs. usual CC in a RCT to assess depression outcomes. Sixty women with depression in
pregnancy will be randomly assigned to MInD or usual CC. We hypothesize that patients randomized to MInD
will experience significantly better improvement in depression (measured by the Edinburgh Postpartum
Depression Scale) at 3 months and 6 months postpartum compared to usual CC and that patients randomized
to MInD will have significantly better functioning as measured by Sheehan Disability Scale and Barkin Index of
Maternal Functioning compared to patients receiving usual CC. Aim 2: To explore the association between
parenting self-efficacy, dyadic interaction and depression to inform a mediational hypothesis. We hypothesize
that parenting self-efficacy will be greater and dyadic interaction will be improved in women randomized to
MInD post treatment and will mediate differences in depression outcomes between patients randomized to
MInD and usual CC. Aim 3: To examine relative utilization of MInD vs usual CC, feasibility of conducting the
trial, assessment burden and perceived match of treatment to patient need. We will use a mixed methods
strategy using the Working Alliance Inventory and in-depth patient interviews to compare MInD and usual CC.
We hypothesize that patients randomized to MInD will have higher utilization of treatment as measured by
attendance at least 3 antenatal and 3 postpartum CM sessions. We will explore the research question: How
do the treatment experiences of patients randomized to MInD compare with the treatment experiences of
patients randomized to usual CC? At the end of this project our multidisciplinary and complementary team will
be poised to conduct an R01 funded, l...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10104302
- **Project number:** 1R34MH124798-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Amritha Subray Bhat
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $194,375
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-02-15 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10104302

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10104302, A Dyadic Approach to Perinatal Depression Treatment in Primary Care (1R34MH124798-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10104302. Licensed CC0.

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