Ep. 18 - Understanding Perinatal Depression With Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody

Dr. Meltzer-Body is the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She also directs the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders and is an executive sponsor of the UNC SOM and UNC Health Well-Being initiative. Dr. Meltzer-Brody founded the UNC Perinatal Psychiatry Program in 2004 and became Chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry in October 2019.  She investigates the epidemiologic and biological predictors of perinatal depression (PND) including genetic, neurosteroid and other neuroendocrine biomarkers as well as the impact of adverse life events. She is also the founder and lead of the Postpartum Depression Action Towards and Treatment (PACT) Consortium, and co-PI on a smartphone app (originally named PPD ACT and now rebranded as MOM GENES) that is a large scale international genetic study of PPD and postpartum.   In today’s episode, Dr. Meltzer-Brody will be discussing with us how perinatal depression, which can impact 10-15% of mothers, is defined, what are some of the signs that one should recognize as an indicator of when to reach out for help, and finally what are some of the best treatments for perinatal depression, postpartum depression, and anxiety. Dr. Meltzer-Brody will also talk about how her smartphone app, MOM GENES, has been used to generate evidence-based research on postpartum and how to identify genetic risk factors for women who may develop postpartum depression. You can learn more about Dr. Meltzer-Brody and her research at https://www.med.unc.edu/psych/directory/samantha-meltzer-brody/ and https://www.momgenesfightppd.org/