Have non-pharmacological methods of reducing depression been studied in women who are pregnant?
The most important non-pharmacological technique for treating pregnant women is psychotherapy, which has been shown to be effective in pregnant women. There are a few others that a woman can talk to her doctor about, too. Sleep deprivation therapy (sometimes called wake therapy) is a method that has been found to be of some help. It appears to work by re-setting circadian rhythms. Another technique that has been studied is exposure to bright light in the morning. In a study, 16 women were exposed to light from a 10,000 lux light box for one hour each morning. After three weeks of treatment, the women’s scores on tests for depression symptoms were reduced by an average of 49 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids (from fish oil) have been proposed as a possible treatment for mood disorders in pregnant women, too. For pregnant women who are severely depressed, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice. It’s been successfully employed to treat women in all three trimesters of pregn
