The proposed research will extend the period of follow-up of a sample of treated postpartum depressed mothers and their children and a sample of postpartum nondepressed mothers and their children by approximately one year. The purposes of this research are: (1) to determine the rate of recurrence of depression in successfully treated women over a 30 month period following the end of treatment, (2) to evaluate a clinical-social model of depression recurrence in successfully treated women, and (3) to compare child adjustment and mother-child interaction at age 3 among three groups of women (women recovered at the end of treatment, women not recovered at the end of treatment, and women who did not experience a postpartum depression). This work builds on the ongoing research whose purposes are: (1) to evaluate interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) as a treatment for postpartum depression; (2) to evaluate the effect of IPT on a) women's adjustment in their relationships with their spouses, children, families, and friends, b) the women's responsiveness to their infants, and c) the infants' affective expression and emotional regulation (an purpose 2 stated above). A sample of 120 postpartum depressed women has been randomly assigned to immediate or delayed (a waiting list control) IPT. Treatment consisted of 12 to 16 sessions (over 12 weeks) with a private therapist. Assessments of women before, during, and after therapy with several measures of depression and social adjustment were undertaken. After the treatment trial, all women are currently followed for 18 months with assessments of depression and social adjustment occurring every 3 months. Assessments of children will take place at pre-therapy, post-therapy, and about 2 and 3 years of age. We expect that women receiving interpersonal psychotherapy will evidence significantly lower levels of depression, higher levels of social adjustment than women in the waiting list control condition, and be more responsive to their infants. We also expect that approximately 40 percent to 50 percent of successfully treated women will experience a recurrence of their depression during the 18 month follow-up period. We expect that previous history of depression and other psychiatric disorders will be associated with increased risk of depression recurrence. The final purpose of the ongoing research is to evaluate the contribution of maternal depression in the first three years of children's lives to their adjustment at age 3. Finally, we expect that children whose mothers were chronically depressed during their first 3 years of life will show poorer adjustment at 3 years of age.
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