Pharmacotherapy and ECT Prescription for Women with Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in an Australian Psychiatric Mother-baby Unit.

Out on PubMed, from authors in Australia, is this paper: 

Pharmacotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy prescription for women with depressive and anxiety disorders in a psychiatric mother-baby unit.

Saluja S, Cooter A, Roberts S, Branjerdporn G.Australas Psychiatry. 2024 Aug 29:10398562241278856. doi: 10.1177/10398562241278856. Online ahead of print.PMID: 39209800

The abstract is copied below:

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the pharmacotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) prescription of women with depression and anxiety admitted to an Australian inpatient psychiatric mother-baby unit (MBU) and compare prescription to national clinical practice guidelines.

Method: A retrospective audit was conducted on women diagnosed with depression or anxiety admitted to a public psychiatric inpatient MBU from March 2017 to July 2019. Data was captured at three time points to assess demographic, clinical and pharmacotherapy treatment characteristics. Descriptive statistics were completed.

Results: Of the 74 women, 57 women had depression, with 73% prescribed Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and 14% provided ECT during admission. For women with anxiety (n = 17), 23% were prescribed a benzodiazepine with concurrent antidepressant prescription. SSRI prescription increased, with other antidepressant prescription up trending through admission. Atypical antipsychotic prescription was increased initially and trended downwards at discharge.

Conclusions: This study explored the therapeutic armamentarium employed for the treatment of mothers admitted to an inpatient psychiatric MBU with depression and anxiety. The results point to the intricate prescribing practices in a naturalistic setting and highlight that prescribing practices were in line with national guidelines.

Keywords: electroconvulsive therapy; pharmacotherapy; postpartum anxiety; postpartum depression; psychiatric inpatient unit.

The article is here.

And from the text:

The reason to blog about this article is to show the acceptance of ECT in this segment of Australian psychiatry.

It is always important to emphasize how devastating postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis can be, and that ECT should be a standard go-to treatment for severe, urgent and/or treatment resistant cases.

Kudos to these authors for this very helpful report.