Exercise in Pregnancy and Risk of Postpartum Depression

April 4, 2024 updated by: Gabriele Saccone, Federico II University
The prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) varies between 11.9% and 19.2% during the perinatal period. PPD refers to minor and major depression incidents that occur during pregnancy or shortly after (up until 12 months after birth). The symptoms of PPD embrace feeling sad or having a depressed mood, being uninterested in the new-born, unreasonable crying and fear of injuring or harming the baby. Consequently, PPD can negatively impact the mother's well-being and the baby's development. The impact on a child can be short for cognitive and motor development . Although medication is a feasible alternative, many women have constraints due to continuing breastfeeding. Therefore, exercise can be an alternative that could help to deal with PPD. Exercise can be used as a preventive or treatment of mild depression at an early stage and as an addition to a treatment plan for major depressive disorder. Exercising during pregnancy and postpartum improves psychological health and also benefits physical fitness, weight gain control and the prevention or reduction of musculoskeletal discomfort and pain. Therefore, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists has recommended that women during pregnancy and postpartum engage in moderate-intensity physical activity almost every day for 30 min a day

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) varies between 11.9% and 19.2% during the perinatal period. PPD refers to minor and major depression incidents that occur during pregnancy or shortly after (up until 12 months after birth). The symptoms of PPD embrace feeling sad or having a depressed mood, being uninterested in the new-born, unreasonable crying and fear of injuring or harming the baby. Consequently, PPD can negatively impact the mother's well-being and the baby's development. The impact on a child can be short for cognitive and motor development . Although medication is a feasible alternative, many women have constraints due to continuing breastfeeding. Therefore, exercise can be an alternative that could help to deal with PPD. Exercise can be used as a preventive or treatment of mild depression at an early stage and as an addition to a treatment plan for major depressive disorder. Exercising during pregnancy and postpartum improves psychological health and also benefits physical fitness, weight gain control and the prevention or reduction of musculoskeletal discomfort and pain. Therefore, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists has recommended that women during pregnancy and postpartum engage in moderate-intensity physical activity almost every day for 30 min a day

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

398

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • singleton gestation
  • low risk pregnancy
  • age between 20 and 40

Exclusion Criteria:

  • high risk pregnancy
  • multiple gestation
  • prior post partum depression
  • any psychiatric disase
  • controindication for exercise
  • lung or heart disease
  • prior preterm birth
  • IVF pregnancy
  • women who already perform agonistic sport activity

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: exercise
aerobic exercise during pregnancy
Behavioral: exercise in pregnancy
aerobic exercise
No Intervention: no exercise
no recommendation regarding exercise

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
edinburgh depression scale
Time Frame: 3 months after delivery
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS)
3 months after delivery

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Postpartum depression
Time Frame: 3 months after delivery
DSM-5 (SCID-5)
3 months after delivery
preterm birth
Time Frame: 37 weeks of gestation
defined as delivery before 37 weeks of gestation
37 weeks of gestation

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Federico II University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 22, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 22, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 4, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

April 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 9, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 4, 2024

Last Verified

April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 02.24

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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