Healthcare research institute The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research reported on Friday the receipt of more than USD4m in multi-year grants to study the perinatal depression in women - before and after childbirth - and possible new treatments.

The institute said it received USD2.7m from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the pathophysiology or manifestations of perinatal depression in women, as well as USD1.4m as a four-year sub-award from Rhode Island Hospital, funded by the NIH.

Perinatal Depression research will be led by Dr Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, associate professor at the Feinstein Institutes' Institute of Behavioral Science. She is a leader in behavioral health and a pioneering researcher in the treatment of women suffering from depression.

In conjunction, Feinstein will be part of a multi-site randomized clinical trial, along with Rhode Island Hospital, Johns Hopkins University and UNC Chapel Hill. The study will determine the relationships between sex steroids, brain chemistry and brain circuitry in women with perinatal depression and those without. The clinical trial will aim to recruit women during their third trimester of pregnancy and all four academic sites will run identical trials in an effort to include racially and ethnically diverse participants.

Depression among perinatal women is common and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) research shows that approximately one in eight women experience symptoms of postpartum depression or depression after giving birth. This new funding will help determine if Personalized Integrated Chronotherapy (PIC) is an effective treatment for women suffering from one subtype, characterized by insomnia.