Details of stream 5 studies

A 1 Year Follow-up Study of Women Having Psychosocial Screening in Pregnancy

Principal Investigator: Austin
Maternal and infant outcomes are being investigated comparing high and low risk groups identified at screening antenatally, to examine the impact of screening on referral to, and uptake of mental health care, in the high risk women as well as parenting stress, and development and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Antenatal and Postnatal Depression: Impact on Infant Mental Health

Principal Investigator: Austin
While temperament is partly genetic, evidence (including our pilot data) links high levels of antenatal maternal anxiety and depression with “difficult” infant temperament at 4 months, suggesting an influence on in-utero temperament. We have designed a study examining the impact of maternal psychological morbidity on foetal neuro-behaviour.

The Impact of Psychiatric Morbidity on Maternal Perinatal Mortality

Principal Investigator: Austin
Following a preliminary study (Austin et al 2007), this linkage study in collaboration with the National Perinatal Statistics Unit is planned to ascertain more accurately the relationship between psychiatric morbidity and maternal perinatal mortality.

The Impact of Depression on Cardiac Conditions

Principal Investigator: Parker
We are currently re-examining the established phenomena that (i) depression increases the chances of a subsequent myocardial infarction and (ii) concurrent depression during the time of having a heart attack increases the chance of death, pursuing the hypothesis that anxiety, rather than depression, is the higher order determining variable. Results will shape innovative studies in a topic that has excited international attention.

The Long-Term Outcome of Depression: A Follow-up of People Seen at the Mood Disorders Unit Clinic

Principal Investigator: Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic While the great majority of people recover from an episode of depression it is not uncommon for them to experience further episodes. The Mood Disorders Unit (MDU) commenced seeing patients in 1985 and is in an excellent position to investigate what happens to people in the 10, 15 or even 20 years following an episode of depression. In mid-2004 we will start to follow-up people who were assessed at the clinic at least 5 years previously. The broad and innovative assessments at the MDU should provide a unique perspective on the question of outcome.