Perinatal Depression and Maternal Nutritional Status

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perinatal depression has serious adverse effects, including harming the nutritional status of mothers and children. Depressive symptoms may also be affected by poor nutrition. The goal of this proposal is to provide Dr. Lisa Bodnar with the mental health training she needs to become an independent investigator and nutritional interventionist in perinatal mental health. Dr. Bodnar is a nutritional epidemiologist in the area of perinatology. Her interest in nutritional aspects of perinatal psychiatry represents a natural extension of her previous work. Her short-term goals are: (1) to acquire a clear understanding of neurobiology, psychiatry, and methodological approaches used to assess mental health outcomes; (2) to gain practical experience in the diagnosis and evaluation of treatment response of mood disorders in women; and (3) to obtain pilot data to inform a methodologically rigorous protocol for an R01 grant application to conduct a large prospective study of the nutritional contributors to and consequences of perinatal mood disorders. She will achieve these goals through a training plan that incorporates mentoring, coursework, a clinical practicum, seminars, directed readings, manuscript writing, and training in the responsible conduct of research. The institutional support of the epidemiology and psychiatry departments at the University of Pittsburgh will foster her ability to develop the skills necessary to successfully compete for research funding. The project to support these goals will use data from a naturalistic, longitudinal study (R01 MH60335; KL Wisner, PI) of the consequences of depression and antidepressant use during pregnancy to: (1) characterize the perinatal nutritional status of women with depression women treated with antidepressants for depression, and their offspring, (2) gain a greater understanding of the interaction of nutritional status and body weight during pregnancy and postpartum on depressive symptoms; and (3) elucidate the role of nutrition in the pathophysiology of depression.