I have come across something about women and mental health that actually brightens my day--a rare event! But it's something that gets sad before it gets happy, so bear with me.
According to an article in Pakistan Today about postpartum depression, women in some regions of Pakistan have a rate of postpartum emotional complications (anxiety and depression) around 24%, which sounds like a lot, until you learn that this is actually the lowest estimate and that, particularly in rural Pakistan, an estimated 56% of women suffer from anxiety and/or depression during pregnancy and/or in the three years that follow the birth of a child. Now, I suggest that you go and read the actual article, because my heart swells at the accurate, compassionate reporting about the prevalence of postpartum emotional complications, particularly in the developing world, and the impact of mental health issues on children in the home. It really is very well-written.
Now for the good news: someone, clearly a genius, after reading that psychotherapeutic approaches help women in high-income countries, decided to train local woman just a little bit to counsel their peers. And it worked. I am now going to include a long quote because, as I said, accurate reporting about the benefits of inter-personal therapy just makes me oh so very happy:
A randomised controlled study conducted in a poor rural community in Pakistan has shown that integration of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) into routine work of community health workers more than halved the rate of depression in prenatally depressed women compared with those receiving routine care only. In addition to symptomatic relief, the intervention group had less disability, better overall social functioning and the benefit persisted after one year. It has been reported that patients treated with either pharmacotherapy or cognitive therapy showed similar results. No published findings to date suggest that antidepressant medication reduces future risk of depressive episodes after discontinuation, whereas cognitive therapy has been shown to provide protection against relapse and possible recurrence.
Did you get that? They added just a little training in CBT to the "routine work of community health workers" and it halved the rate of PPD. Cut that monster of an illness in half! And these smart people even thought to check back in a year--yes, these women were still benefiting from that therapy. Note: antidepressants alone don't show signs of helping in the long run, but cognitive therapy? Oh yeah. That lasts long after the SSRI is gone.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, has made my day. Way to go, Pakistan Today. Who knew that you'd do better than 98% of American newspapers when it comes to doing mental health and women the justice they deserve? (I say that simply because we all know Pakistan has a history of not treating its women particularly well, and I love me some examples of trends like that thwarted.)