Saturday, Oct. 21
14:30 – 15:30 (1 hr)
Meeting Room: Port McNeill (4th floor – North Tower)
Prescilla Carrion, MSc; Katarina Tabi, PhD; Barbara Shulman, MD; Catriona Hippman*, PhD; Gabrielle Bossé-Chartier, MD; Deirdre Ryan, MD

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Scholar
2. Medical Expert
3. Communicator

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe the “creating comfort in choice” theory of prenatal antidepressant decision making; 2) List benefits of mindfulness-based interventions for postpartum mental illness; and 3) Summarize current evidence regarding the use of medications for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Mental illness affects approximately 20% of birthing people in the perinatal period, and untreated perinatal mental illness can increase risks for obstetric complications, such as preterm birth, and can negatively impact parent-infant bonding and infant development. Notably, there are treatment options for perinatal mental illnesses, and many treatments effective outside the perinatal period can be beneficial, potentially with some modifications or sensitivities for this context. The BC Reproductive Mental Health Program is a provincial service providing care at more than 5,000 patient visits a year. The service supports patients with perinatal mental illness through an interdisciplinary model employing pharmacotherapy and diverse psychotherapeutic interventions. In this symposium, we will share results from our research team, including 1) the “creating comfort in choice” theory of antidepressant decision making in pregnancy and its translation into an animated video, 2) exploring the impact of mindfulness-based group interventions for patients and their families, and 3) the latest addition to the BC reproductive mental health guidelines on managing perinatal attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

References:

1. Tabi K, Bhullar M, Fantu L, et al. Feasibility of online mindfulness-based interventions for families affected with postpartum depression and anxiety: study protocol. BMJ Open 2022;12(9):e051935.
2. Baker AS, Freeman MP. Management of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder during pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am 2018;45:495–509.