Development of a Text Intervention for Perinatal Depression

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About 1 in 7 pregnant individuals experience depression, with roughly the same number facing this devastating illness after delivery. The downstream effects of perinatal depression adds to its toll with increased risk of preterm birth; impairments in maternal-child attachment; adverse effects on infant development; and decreased breastfeeding initiation/duration. The US Preventative Services Task Force finds that some major depressive episodes (MDEs) can be averted with counseling strategies that employ principles from interpersonal therapy (IPT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). They also observe the value of peer support, which can decrease perinatal depression. A possible shared mechanism for these interventions is enhancement of self-efficacy, which is critical in the setting of stressful events such as pregnancy and parenting. However, practical implementation of interventions to enhance self-efficacy and reduce depression risk is challenging. Reproductive health providers have limited time and training to deliver depression prevention programs. As well, perinatal individuals may not appreciate the need to participate in a prevention program or have difficulty finding or affording providers of behavioral interventions. Technology can assist with these challenges by providing education, support and therapeutic interventions to perinatal pregnant individuals. Unlike web-based applications (apps), text messaging interventions (TMIs) can proactively deliver health information and messages, even to those with limited motivation to engage in preventative interventions. Mobile phone use has exploded with >95% of pregnant individuals (including >85% of the minority population) reporting use of a mobile phone to communicate via short text messages. TMIs can also screen perinatal individuals for depression outside the general medical setting and provide general peer support. With end-user input throughout the process, we will build a multi-component TMI (called Text4Moms) that screens and triages perinatal individuals for risk of a MDE. This system will draw content from both IPT and CBT; it will send tailored text messages with links to relevant video content to perinatal individuals at risk for a depressive episode. An on-demand secure chat function staffed by a peer navigator will complement the text messages for enhanced support. The system will include pre-populated content for peers to cut and paste into text messages for participants, which will support peers and decrease their training burden. This system leverages some of the best components of an app (video, tailoring, chat) into a common and user- friendly text messaging platform. After development, we will conduct a pilot randomized trial to test the ability of the TMI to enhance the target of self-efficacy and decrease depressive symptoms and risk of a MDE. We will query Research Domain Criteria (RDOC) constructs of “loss” and “threat,” and will evaluate preliminary effectiveness and implementation (assessment of feasibility, acceptability, use and benefit of the peer chat feature) through a pilot randomized clinical trial.