Authors: Ali NS, Ali BS, Azam IS, Khuwaja AK.
The prevalence of anxiety/depression is quite high during the perinatal period but unfortunately its detection and treatment have been less than satisfactory. Many women are reluctant to take pharmacotherapy for fear of excretion of drugs into their breast milk. This study assesses the effectiveness of counseling from minimally trained community health workers in reducing anxiety/depression, the rate of recurrence and the interval preceding recurrence in women during first two and a half years after childbirth. Results showed a significant decline in level of anxiety/depression was found in both the counseled and the non-counseled groups at 4 and 8 weeks but the counseled group fared better than the non-counseled for recovery, reduction in the rate of recurrence and increase in the duration before relapse. Further studies need to be carried out to assess the benefit of incorporating minimal counseling skills in the training of community health workers.
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Resource Topic: CHW Role, Care Teams, Chronic conditions, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Task shifting
Resource Type: Journal articles
Year: 2010
Region:
Country: Pakistan
Publisher May Restrict Access: No