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Optimizing Mental Health for Women: Recognizing and Treating Mood Disorders Throughout the Lifespan
Program Introduction
Mood disorders throughout women's reproductive stages require comprehensive care to alleviate unnecessary suffering, comorbidities, and unwanted outcomes.
Learning Objectives
After completing this educational activity, you should be able to:
- Appraise the influence of the reproductive stage on mood disorders and comorbid psychiatric conditions in women
- Assess factors involved in the diagnoses of mood disorders in women and the differential diagnoses and common comorbidities
- Summarize evidence-based approaches for diagnosing and treating mood disorders in women
Target Audience
Psychiatrists, primary care physicians, and other health care providers
Program Description
Mood disorders can come and go during the reproductive stages of a woman’s life and beyond and can include premenstrual-related mood disorders, depression and other psychiatric disorders during pregnancy, postpartum mood disorders, and depression during menopause, as well as comorbid psychiatric conditions. Women may have regular contact with health care providers at these various stages in their lives, providing an opportunity for treatment intervention. However, clinicians struggle to effectively identify and manage these disorders, leaving women’s mental health issues unaddressed and causing unnecessary suffering, multiple comorbidities, and unwanted outcomes. Context is essential for diagnoses and treatment, and spending time with patients, taking a full history, and taking the time to understand each patient’s perspective during these complex periods lead to more accurate diagnoses, ultimately facilitating more effective treatment plans. An array of options is available for treating women’s mental health, including antidepressants, oral contraceptives, hormones and recently approved neurosteroids, and nonpharmacological approaches. Clinicians need to be aware of which treatment options are available and evidence-based, guideline-directed solutions to help women manage their mental health. Creating patient-centered, individualized, evidence-based treatment plans is key to optimizing outcomes for women across their lifespan.
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Support Statement
Supported by an educational grant from Mylan Inc., a Viatris Company.
Learning Objective
After completing this educational activity, you should be able to:
- Appraise the influence of the reproductive stage on mood disorders and comorbid psychiatric conditions in women
- Assess factors involved in the diagnoses of mood disorders in women and the differential diagnoses and common comorbidities
- Summarize evidence-based approaches for diagnosing and treating mood disorders in women
Release and Expiration Dates
This CME activity was published in September 2023 and is eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ through September 30, 2024.
Statement of Need and Purpose
Depression in all stages of life is a problem that is not often reported but is likely affecting many women from menarche on. Mental health professionals, primary care physicians, and other health care providers struggle to effectively identify and manage the mental health needs of women of all ages. Major depressive disorder (MDD), depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders can come and go during the reproductive stages of a woman’s life and beyond and can often remain unaddressed, causing unnecessary suffering, multiple comorbidities, and unwanted outcomes. Early and regular assessment and treatment interventions of female patients for these diagnoses can have a significant impact on patients’ lives and that of their families.
Unlabeled and Investigational Usage
The faculty of this educational activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. Faculty members have been advised to disclose to the audience any reference to an unlabeled or investigational use.
No endorsement of unapproved products or uses is made or implied by coverage of these products or uses.
Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indicators, contraindications and warnings.
Review Process
The faculty members agreed to provide a balanced and evidence-based presentation and discussed the topics and CME objectives during the planning sessions. The faculty’s submitted content was validated by CME Institute staff, and the activity was evaluated for accuracy, use of evidence, and fair balance by the Chair and a peer reviewer who is without conflict of interest.
The opinions expressed herein are those of the faculty and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CME provider and publisher or the commercial supporter
© Copyright 2023 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.
Faculty Affiliation
Kathryn M. Abel, |
Marlene P. Freeman, MD |
|
Financial Disclosure
The CME Institute adheres to the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). Any individuals in a position to control the content of a continuing education activity, including faculty, content developers, reviewers, staff, and others, are required to disclose to learners the presence or absence of any relevant financial relationships with an ACCME-defined ineligible company within the preceding 24 months of the activity. The ACCME defines an “ineligible company” as one whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
The CME Institute has mitigated all relevant conflicts of interest prior to the commencement of the activity. None of the individuals involved in the content have relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies except the following:
Dr Abel has received consulting fees from Flo Health; has served on the advisory board for Karolinska Institute (ended); has received royalties from Cambridge University Press and The Royal College of Psychiatrists; and is a stock shareholder in Google and Amgen.
Dr Freeman, as an employee of Massachusetts General Hospital, working with the MGH Clinical Trials Network and Institute, has had research funding from multiple pharmaceutical companies and NIMH. MGH National Pregnancy Registry has been sponsored by Alkermes, Inc. (2016-Present), Eisai, Inc. (2022-Present), Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc (2019-Present), Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (2008-Present), Sage Therapeutics (2019-Present), Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2011-Present), Supernus Pharmaceuticals (2021-Present), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (2018-Present). Past Sponsors include Forest/Actavis/Allergan (2016-2018), AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals (2009-2014), AuroMedics Pharma LLC (2021-2022), Aurobindo Pharma (2020-2022), Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc (2009-2014), and Pfizer, Inc. (2009-2011). She has received advisory boards or consulting fees from Data Safety Committees and Independent Data Safety and Monitoring Committees from Janssen (Johnson& Johnson), Novartis, Neurocrine, Eliem, Sage, Brainify, Everly Health, Tibi Health, Relmada, Beckley Psytech, and Brii Biotech; received honoraria for speaking/teaching from WebMD, Medscape, Pri-Med, Postpartum Support International; and has received royalties from The Massachusetts General Hospital Female Reproductive Lifecycle and Hormones Questionnaire.
None of the other faculty, planners, reviewers, and CME Institute staff for this educational activity have relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.
Accreditation Statement
The CME Institute of Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc., is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit Designation
The CME Institute of Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc., designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Note: The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) accept certificates of participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME.
To obtain credit for this activity, study the material and complete the CME Posttest and Evaluation.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
- 1.00 Participation