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Thursday, October 10, 2024

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Florida picks up the pieces after Hurricane Milton; Georgia elected officials say Hurricane Helene was a climate change wake-up call; Hosiers are getting better civic education; the Senate could flip to the GOP in November; New Mexico postal vans go electric; and Nebraska voters debate school vouchers.

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Civil rights groups push for a voter registration deadline extension in Georgia, federal workers helping in hurricane recovery face misinformation and threats of violence, and Brown University rejects student divestment demands.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Rural Iowa mothers face severe postpartum depression

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Monday, September 30, 2024   

Iowa doctors are assessing how a new medication is working for moms with postpartum depression. That's timely right now, as more babies are born in the fall than any other time of year.

Researchers say roughly one in five new moms faces symptoms of postpartum depression - and of those, 20% experience symptoms so dire they report considering suicide or self harm.

University of Iowa College of Public Health Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Nichole Nidey, said postpartum depression is a problem statewide - but can be especially serious in rural Iowa, where access to mental health care can be limited.

"Rural individuals have about a 20% increased odds of experiencing postpartum depression than those in urban centers," said Nidey. "And then, I think there's still unfortunately a lot of stigma related to mental health in general, but particularly among new moms. And so, I think that also serves as a pretty big barrier to care."

Psychiatrists have started prescribing zuranolone - the first pill approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat postpartum depression.

The FDA fast-tracked its approval after clinical trials proved highly successful.

Psychiatrists say zuranolone can be effective within days.

But UnitedHealthCare Chief Medical Officer for Population Health, OB/GYN Dr. Donna O'Shea, said it's still important for new moms to know and understand the risk factors and symptoms of postpartum depression.

"And the risk factors include any women with a history of anxiety or mood disorders," said O'Shea, "or women who have a family history of depression or postpartum depression."

O'Shea said people from under-served communities are at higher risk than those who aren't.

Not all new moms experience postpartum depression, but for those who do, O'Shea said zuranolone is a vast improvement over previous treatments - including intravenous infusions that took as long as 60 hours.



Disclosure: UnitedHealthcare contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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