{"id":5077,"date":"2026-08-04T11:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5077"},"modified":"2026-08-04T11:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:06:31","slug":"seeking-new-solutions-for-perinatal-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5077","title":{"rendered":"Seeking New Solutions for Perinatal Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pregnant
\n\"pregnant
\nAug 01, 2026<\/p>\n

Regan Odysseus was scared. She\u2019d tried Prozac before, but the medication made her <a href="https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5059" title="Economic woes take toll on mental health<\/a> | The Express Tribune”>mental health<\/a> worse, leaving her unsure if further treatment would help or hurt. But between her full-time job as an ICU nurse, her full-time job as a mom, and the hormone shifts from her second pregnancy, the pressure on her mental health was becoming unsustainable<\/p>\n

When perinatal psychiatrist Rana Jawish, MD,<\/a> started a conversation about how Odysseus was doing, she broke down. \u201cIt was very enlightening,\u201d Odysseus says. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was not in a good place until someone else asked me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researcher clinicians at U of U Health are working with patients to test non-pharmaceutical treatments for depression and anxiety. Clinical trials give pregnant people more options, grant new hope for mental health conditions, and improve health care for the future<\/p>\n

Jawish was leading a clinical trial to help treat depression and anxiety in pregnant people. When Odysseus learned of the opportunity to participate, she was nervous but determined to try again. \u201cIf any time, now is the time,\u201d she recalls thinking, \u201cand I owe it to my children to try to be better for them and feel my best so I can be my best. It was kind of a sense of relief, like, \u2018OK, I\u2019m finally going to get this addressed, not just feel like I have to cope with it on my own all the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Odysseus\u2019s previous negative experiences, the clinical trial involved no medication. Instead, the trial used a combination of two strategies: a kind of talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), combined with regular sessions of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in which powerful magnetic fields stimulate regions of the brain involved in mood control<\/p>\n

The FDA approved TMS for treatment-resistant depression in non-pregnant populations in 2009. While small pilot studies suggest that TMS could work as a non-pharmacological intervention for depression during pregnancy, it\u2019s still understudied in this population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite being in use for more than a decade, the therapy is still off-label for pregnant people\u2014a population for which non-pharmaceutical mental health treatments are urgently needed, Jawish says<\/p>\n

\u201cPer the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023, maternal mental health conditions, including depression and substance use disorder, are the most common cause of maternal mortality,\u201d Jawish says. And despite the severity of this issue, treatment options for pregnant people are limited. \u00a0\u201cA lot of antidepressants have very limited safety data for use while pregnant or breastfeeding,\u201d Jawish adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TMS could be an alternative option that wouldn\u2019t involve introducing medications into a pregnant person\u2019s body<\/p>\n

\n\"A
Rana Jawish, MD. Image credit: Charlie Ehlert \/ University of Utah Health<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\"A
A TMS machine. Image credit: Charlie Ehlert \/ University of Utah Health.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Odysseus\u2019s first<\/a> TMS appointment was \u201ca little scary,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe magnetic pulse feels like a buzzing sensation in your brain. It\u2019s really weird.\u201d But she says that the comprehensive support of the research team made a big difference. \u201cI felt very supported. They had a whole team there with me, talking me through everything, and I felt really well informed about what to expect from the treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odysseus received TMS multiple times a week for six weeks, and she says she noticed real improvements to her mental health. By the end of the trial, \u201ceverything became a lot lighter and more tolerable and manageable,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like a better employee, a better nurse, a better leader, and a better mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

While TMS appeared to help Odysseus, the overall efficacy of the therapy for pregnant populations is still unknown. Jawish\u2019s study was designed to test if TMS combined with CBT is doable for patients and to identify any barriers to completing treatment; with 20 patients, it\u2019s too early to say whether TMS works for most pregnant people. Jawish hopes to start larger clinical studies soon to determine if the treatment is effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had better outcomes myself, but then to be able to maybe contribute to other women having better access to better support and better outcomes was meaningful to me. It felt like an important study to participate in.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regan Odysseus was scared. She\u2019d tried Prozac before, but the medication made her mental health worse, leaving her unsure if further treatment would help or hurt. But between her full-time job as an ICU nurse, her full-time job as a mom, and the hormone shifts from her second pregnancy, the pressure on her mental health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[40,58,674,672,673],"class_list":["post-5077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pregnancy","tag-health","tag-mental","tag-perinatal","tag-seeking","tag-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5082,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5077\/revisions\/5082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}