AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas has received an $11.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a trial for drug-free postpartum depression treatment.
According to a release from the UT Dell Medical School, the trials will feature personalized brain stimulation therapy, which has been cleared the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to UCLA, the process involves sending electrical impulses to the brain to encourage non-depressive thinking.
“For depression, the treatment is used to target brain networks that regulate emotional processing and self-referential thoughts,” the UCLA study stated.
Five hundred thousand women are affected with postpartum depression every year in the United States. Up to 79% of patients have shown progress that led to a remission state in 2.6 days in other studies with the treatment, according to the release. Jeffery Newport, M.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Dell Medical School, is encouraging the study as a non-invasive way to help new mothers recover faster.
“Postpartum depression is both common and profoundly disruptive, affecting not only mothers but their infants and families,” Newport said. “This study is designed to test whether a noninvasive, nondrug treatment can provide meaningful relief much more quickly than current options allow.”
One hundred and ninety-two women from the ages of 18-45 who recently had a child will be selected to participate in the study. The interest form can be found here.