Exploring transgenerational approaches to prevent common mental disorders

Abstract

Current international guidelines advice to screen en subsequently treat all pregnant women for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. This happens with the underlying idea that what works and is good for the pregnant woman, may also prevent or reduce the negative effects of the disorders in the children. An advice from this dissertation is that one should be careful with this recommendation with regard to the children. Potential negative consequences of the use of antidepressants and of psychological treatments during pregnancy on the child cannot be excluded. In addition, the dissertation showed that, up to then, there were no randomized studies investigating the negative or positive effects of medication treatments (such as antidepressants) for common mental disorders during pregnancy on the baby. We conducted the worldwide first randomised controlled study on a short psychological training while tapering antidepressants during pregnancy (Stop or Go study). The results from this study indicate that the training while tapering antidepressants may protect as well against changes in emotions and relapse of depression, as compared to the use of antidepressants. This combination of tapering and training did not seem to have negative consequences for the birth weight of the baby. For now, the available and investigated treatments for common mental disorders do not seem to prevent the transmission of common mental disorders from parents to children on the short term. Transgenerational research is crucial in order to find starting points with which common mental disorders can be prevented so that future generations are less burdened with these mental disorders.