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Citation |
The Lancet Psychiatry. Lancet Psychiatry 2019; 6(7): 547. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
31230672 |
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Abstract |
This past May, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) convened for its annual meeting, with the theme “Disrupt, Include, Engage & Innovate”. During the 4-day event, no fewer than 28 sessions were dedicated to collaborative care models for mental health, making it a clear stand-out topic of the conference. Although several mental health conditions would benefit from a collaborative care approach, arguably postpartum depression should be high up on any physician's list. Physical and mental health care for mothers and babies in the USA is disjointed to say the least, despite the overwhelming evidence that a baby's health is directly linked to the mother's health after delivery: a period that is sometimes referred to as the fourth trimester. Given that one in nine mothers will experience postpartum depression in some form, there could hardly be a better opportunity for psychiatry to tackle a major mental health burden, engage and include a large population of historically underserved patients, and use the many tools at our disposal to initiate new ways to improve care. With the obvious enthusiasm shown at the APA meeting for collaborative care, one would expect this model to be a leading choice for conditions such as postpartum depression. Instead, the latest treatment for postpartum depression is an injectable drug called brexanolone that has a price of about US$35 000 and requires inpatient care for 60 h for drug infusion (with the hospital stay, naturally, adding to the costs). Language: en |