Medication use in pregnancy with focus on attitudes, perception of risk and mental well-being

Depression is a common disorder during pregnancy and several studies have found maternal depression and anxiety to be risk factors for preterm delivery, low birth weight, operative delivery and admission to neonatal intensive care units. Studies show that pregnant women overestimate the risks, especially of psychotropic drugs during pregnancy. Pregnant women beliefs will likely impact their decision whether to use or not a medication during pregnancy. This may have important health consequences if their a ttitudes negatively affect adherence to a needed medication. This is especially important for many pharmacologic treatments of conditions in which the untreated disease may be more harmful than the prescribed medication to the unborn child. The project ai ms to investigate on an international level the association between specific medication use and mental disorders during pregnancy. Special attention is drawn to symptoms of depression during pregnancy which will be identified by utilization of the Edinbur gh Postnatal Depression Scale by John Cox & Jeni Holden. Additional objectives of the project are to examine the adherence in relation to risk perception and beliefs about medication during pregnancy, as well as attitudes towards medications during pregna ncy. These determinants will be measured by utilization of standardized and validated psychometric scales. The study design consists in an interne-based survey, an innovative tool to recruit subjects in epidemiological studies. The study will be conducted in most of the European countries, in Australia, Canada and USA. The collaborative research with the most prominent researchers in the world on this field at The Motherisk Program, Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, Canada, will definitely facilitate th e data analysis as well as result interpretation. Supervision and collaboration with senior researchers at The Motherisk Program will have high positive impact on the competence building in this research area.