A Cochrane review included 28 studies on the effect of diverse psychosocial and psychological interventions to reduce the risk of developing postpartum depression, with a total of 17 000 subjects.
Overall, women who received a psychosocial intervention were less likely to develop postpartum depression as those receiving standard care (average RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.93; 20 trials, n=14 727). Several promising interventions include: the provision of intensive, individualised postpartum home visits provided by public health nurses or midwives (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.73; 2 trials, n=1262); lay (peer)-based telephone support (RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.77; 1 trial, n=612); and interpersonal psychotherapy (standardised mean difference -0.27, 95% CI -0.52 to -0.01; 5 trials, n=366). Professional- and lay-based interventions were both effective. Individually-based interventions reduced depressive symptomatology at final assessment (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.92; 14 trials, n=12 914) as did multiple-contact interventions (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.93; 16 trials, n=11 850). Interventions that were initiated in the postpartum period also significantly reduced the risk to develop depressive symptomatology (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.90; 12 trials, n=12786). Identifying mothers 'at-risk' assisted the prevention of postpartum depression (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.88; 8 trials, n=1853).