New parents who have low education levels and more than one child are more likely to experience depression in the first six months after their newborn is discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2018 annual meeting, May 5 to May 8, in Toronto.
The study is a spinoff of the "Giving Parents Support (GPS) after NICU discharge" clinical trial and involves 125 GPS trial participants. Researchers assessed depressive symptoms among patients using a 10-item, validated screening tool — the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The mean age of the participants ranged from 26.5 to 30.6 years old.
The study shows that the median length of time the participants' newborns remained in the NICU was 18 days. When the newborns were discharged, 40 percent of parents had elevated CES-D scores. Six months post-discharge, 14 percent of the parents had elevated scores.
"It's reassuring that, for many parents, these depressive symptoms ease over time. However for a select group of parents, depression symptoms persisted six months after discharge. Our findings help to ensure that we target mental health screening and services to these more vulnerable parents," Karen Fratantoni, MD, lead study author and a pediatrician at Washington, D.C.-based Children's National Health System, said in a May 5 statement.