A Randomised Trial of DHA in Pregnancy to Prevent Postnatal Depressive Symptoms and Enhance Neurodevelopment in Children

12-17%的女性在产后一年患上产后抑郁症。产后抑郁症会导致儿童的情绪、行为和发育问题。尽管有许多复杂的心理和社会因素参与其中，但在饮食中补充一种叫做DHA的omega-3脂肪已被证明可以减轻抑郁症的症状。富含DHA的饮食也与婴儿视觉和神经能力的改善有关。正常情况下，DHA是通过母亲的饮食获得的，然后在子宫内传递给发育中的婴儿。然而，在怀孕期间提供给婴儿的DHA量很高，在大多数情况下远远高于大多数澳大利亚母亲从饮食中获得的DHA量。在这项研究中，我们将测试在孕妇的饮食中补充DHA是否会减少女性的抑郁症状，并使儿童获得更好的发育分数。如果我们的研究是成功的，它将导致一个简单而有效的方法来预防产后抑郁症和改善儿童的发展结果。

Postnatal depression strikes 12-17% of women in the year after giving birth. Postnatal depression can result in emotional, behavioural and developmental problems in children. Although there are many complex psychological and social factors involved, supplementing the diet with an omega-3 fat called DHA has been shown to alleviate the symptoms of depression. Enriching diets with DHA has also been associated with improvements in visual and neural abilities of young infants. Normally, DHA is obtained through the mother's diet and is then passed onto the developing baby whilst in the womb. However, the amount of DHA that is delivered to the baby in pregnancy is high, and in most cases is far higher than most Australian mothers get in their diets. In this study we will test whether supplementing the diets of pregnant women with DHA results in women suffering less depressive symptoms and children with better development scores. If our study is successful, it will result in a simple and effective way to prevent postnatal depression and improve the developmental outcome of the children.