Science News About Women’s Mental Health

Prenatal COVID-19 infection increased the risk for impaired attention and delayed socioemotional and cognitive functioning among infants of mothers who experienced high psychosocial stress during their pregnancy.

New NIMH-funded research tracked population-level rates of postpartum depression among new mothers before, during, and after pregnancy.

In a qualitative study supported by NIMH, researchers identified barriers and supports to Kenyan women’s use of PrEP, a highly effective medication to reduce HIV transmission.

Women who had ever experienced sexual violence in their lifetime—including sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment—were more likely to develop high blood pressure over a seven-year follow-up period, according to an NIH-funded study.

NIMH-supported researchers investigated suicide risk among women in the year before and year after giving birth.

Experts from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are available to speak on a variety of topics related to mental health and the coronavirus pandemic, such as the effects of the pandemic and isolation on those with and without mental illnesses; healthy ways to deal with stress, anxiety, and loneliness; how to talk with children and teens about the coronavirus; and how people can find mental health help and support if they need it.

FDA approval of the postpartum depression treatment brexanolone represents the final phase of a bench-to-bedside journey for this drug — a journey that began in the NIMH Intramural Research Program. NIMH experts are available to provide information on postpartum depression and the importance of, and the science underlying, this new drug.