National Cross-Sectional Study of Mental Health Screening Practices for Primary Caregivers of NICU Infants

Cooper Bloyd; Snehal Murthy; Clara Song; Linda S Franck; Christina Mangurian

doi:10.3390/children9060793

National Cross-Sectional Study of Mental Health Screening Practices for Primary Caregivers of NICU Infants

Children (Basel). 2022 May 28;9(6):793. doi: 10.3390/children9060793.

Authors

Cooper Bloyd^{1

2}, Snehal Murthy¹, Clara Song³, Linda S Franck⁴, Christina Mangurian^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
² Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
³ Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Pasadena, CA 91188, USA.
⁴ School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.

Abstract

Universal screening for postpartum mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) has been recommended for all new parents at outpatient postpartum and well-child visits. However, parents of newborns admitted to the NICU are rarely able to access these services during their infant's prolonged hospitalization. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of mental health screening and treatment programs for parents or other primary caregivers in NICUs across the country. In this cross-sectional study, US NICU medical directors were invited to complete an online survey about current practices in mental health education, screening, and treatment for primary caregivers of preterm and ill infants in the NICU. Comparative analyses using Fisher's exact test were performed to evaluate differences in practices among various NICU practice settings. Survey responses were obtained from 75 out of 700 potential sites (10.7%). Of participating NICUs, less than half routinely provided caregivers with psychoeducation about mental health self-care (n = 35, 47%) or routinely screened caregivers for PPD or other mental health disorders (n = 33, 44%). Nearly one-quarter of the NICUs did not provide any PMAD screening (n = 17, 23%). Despite consensus that postpartum psychosocial care is essential, routine mental health care of primary caregivers in the NICU remains inadequate.

Keywords: NICU; anxiety; depression; mental health; mood disorder; postpartum; screening.

Grants and funding

No funding was secured for this study. Outside of this work, CM is supported by several grants including the National Institutes of Mental Health (R01MH112420), Genentech, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (Grant 2015211), and the California Health Care Foundation.