When her own experience with a complicated pregnancy reignited an interest in medicine and science, Dr. Lauren Osborne left her career in publishing to pursue medical school. Now a reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Osborne leads the way in researching the connection between immune system dysregulation, stress reactivity, and the role of allopregnanolone in mood and anxiety disorders, particularly in pregnant and postpartum women. In this episode from the Advances In Care archives, she discusses how her expansive research is getting us one step closer to decoding perinatal mood disorders, and she calls for increased training in reproductive psychiatry to help OBGYNs better treat their patients.

Since this episode aired Dr. Osborne and her colleagues have taken their research on perinatal mood disorders one step further. They conducted the first comprehensive study of the metabolic pathway of the hormone progesterone to pinpoint alterations that could predict which women are at a higher risk of postpartum depression, or PD. They are hopeful that their findings will lead to the development of a blood test that could be used during pregnancy to predict PD and identify which patients may benefit from prophylactic treatment.

For more information visit nyp.org/Advances