Professor Jeannette Milgrom

Clinical & Health Psychology Austin Health
University of Melbourne, VIC
Mental Health Research Grant 2012
Jeannette Milgrom is Professor of Psychology, Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne and Director of the Parent-Infant Research Institute and Psychology at Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia.
 
Professor Milgrom has published in the areas of postnatal depression, infant mental health, parent-infant interventions and health psychology. She is recipient of 61 research grants and author/editor of 4 books (one translated into Italian), 13 chapters (one translated into French), has published over 80 scientific articles, and her work has been recognized internationally. She has also been active professionally, was Chair of the National College of Health Psychologists (Australian Psychological Society 2004-8) and is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society.
 
Over the past 20 years she has developed extensive psychological services in a medical setting and established a Department that is held in high regard as a model for integrating clinical services, research and teaching in health psychology.
 
In 2001, she established the Parent-Infant Research Institute as a Centre of Excellence to provide evidence-based parent-infant interventions, training health professionals and delivering public health initiatives.
 
She has been successful as Principal Investigator on two prestigious National and Health Medical Research grants over the last 5 years, investigating neurobehavioural development in preterm infants. In a landmark publication she demonstrated improvement in infant brain connectivity (visible on MRI scans) following stress-reduction intervention by parents (Milgrom, J., Newnham, C., Anderson, P., Doyle, L.W., Gemmill, A.W. Lee, K., Hunt, R., Bear, M. & Inder, T. (2010). Early Sensitivity Training for Parents of Preterm Children: Impact on the Developing Brain. Pediatric Research, 67(3):330-335).
 
Professor Milgrom was also a principal researcher in the beyondblue national research grant (2002-2006) which resulted in Australian Government funding of $85 million for universal screening for Perinatal Depression, and Chair the beyondblue National Workforce Training Committee (2010-11). A major thrust of her work is to focus on child outcomes, disseminate findings widely and influence health policy.

SUMMARY OF PROJECT: 
Does treating maternal antenatal depression and anxiety prevent adverse infant neurodevelopmental outcomes?

There is growing evidence that maternal anxiety or stress during pregnancy has both short-term effects on the fetus and longer-term child neurodevelopment (emotional, behavioural or cognitive problems), including an increased risk of symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity, anxiety, and language delay. Similar results have been found for depression. Whilst the mechanism of these effects is not fully elucidated, the associations that have been found with antenatal stress (anxiety or depression) are independent of postnatal maternal mood and exposure to life events.
 
Surprisingly, there are no existing studies of the effectiveness of psychological interventions aimed at maternal stress reduction during pregnancy for ameliorating outcomes on infants. Despite the prevalence and seriousness of antenatal depression, a rigorous review of the literature reveals that, to date, only one RCT has evaluated a psychological treatment directly for antenatal depression and this study did not examine outcomes for infants.
 
In this study we will add assessment of infant outcomes (n=70) to a currently funded trial (n = 100 mothers) of antenatal depression and anxiety treatment (funded by MBF Foundation with a small seeding grant from Austin Medical Research Foundation).
 
This is a unique opportunity to follow up infants using the existing RCT evaluating change in maternal antenatal depression and anxiety following psychological treatment (Beating the Blues before Birth). A broad range of infant measures will assess whether reduction in maternal antenatal stress can also prevent adverse infant neurodevelopmental outcomes at 9 months of age. The findings will have immediate implications for clinical practice and health policy in both the public and private sectors for the mental health and wellbeing of the youngest Australians. Such a program will have national significance and contribute to improving health care, wellness and reducing health costs.