Digital Therapy for Prenatal Insomnia May Prevent Postpartum Depression

A digital version of cognitive behavioral therapy, or dCBT, that previously had been shown to reduce insomnia during pregnancy may also prevent postpartum depression and reduce insomnia and anxiety in women up to six months after they give birth, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco. The study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Sleep, is unique in showing that non-depressed women who received dCBT (Sleepio, by Big Health) for insomnia during pregnancy also slept better and had less depression several months into the postpartum period. The study is a follow-up to research that appeared January 2020 in JAMA Psychiatry showing the treatment reduced insomnia, depression, and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy.