Three UAB researchers awarded La Marató funding for their mental health projects

The donations made in the 2021 fundraising marathon will allow 81 research groups to conduct 36 projects on mental health (a total of 150 project submittedtheir proposals). This resource injection aims to foster the creation of new prevention and diagnosis tools, as well as more efficient treatments that aim to help patients and their families to live longer and with a better quality of life.

The three projects conducted by UAB researchers which will receive funding focus on studying how to improve the socio-emotional well-being of children, the perception depressed patients have of daily situations so as to find new therapeutic targets, and the adaptation of a psychoeducational intervention with the aim of preventing postpartum depression and anxiety in first-time mothers.

Improvement in the socio-emotional well-being of children

Roser Nadal, researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences (INc) and the Department of Psychobiology and the Methodology of Health Sciences, leads one of the eight unitary projects chosen: "Trets psicopàtics i prosocialitat en una mostra comunitària de nens i nenes: un estudi longitudinal dels correlats biològics, emocionals i psicopatològics". [Psychopatic and prosociality in a community sample of boys and girls: a longitudinal study of biological, emotional and psychopathological correlatives.]

Nadal and her team from the Laboratori Humà group seek to gain new knowledge to create evidence-based proposals to improve the socio-emotional well-being of children and school coexistence. "The studies on child development show that boys and girls with frequent behavioural problems in their first years of life are susceptible to presenting physical and mental health problems in their adolescent and adult years. These behavioural problems may have different explanations, but we must discover the correlatives associated the different child profiles to design prevention strategies in the first years and guarantee a better prognosis”, explains Roser Nadal.

In the study, the research team will identify trajectories in temperament traits as both risk and protective factors, study psychopathological correlatives and associated prosocial behaviours, and analyse the relation these have with the recognition of emptions and several biomarkers of activation, emotional regulation, stress and social cognition. The team will work with boys and girls in their second year of primary school, their families and school teachers, who had already participated in a previous study which consisted in a year-long study of the children which took into account community, prevention, gender, inclusion and biopsychosocial factors.

Participating in the study are also other researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences and the faculties of Psychology, Medicine and Biosciences, all which form part of the UAB CORE in Mental Health: Beatriz Molinuevo, Rafael Torrubia, Albert Bonillo, Silvia Fuentes, Anastasiya Ivanova, Antonio Armario and Humberto Gagliano. Iris Pérez, from the Parc Taulí University Hospital (Mental Health Service for Children and Adolescents) will also be collaborating. 

How daily situations are perceived by patients with depression

Miquel Domènech, researcher at the Department of Social Psychology, participates in the project "Noves dianes terapèutiques en la depressió: el paper de la percepció situacional" [New therapeutic targets for depression: the role of situational perceptions], coordinated by researcher David Gallardo from the University of Barcelona, and which also includes the participation of Marta Subirà from the Parc Taulí Foundation.

"Depression is a disorder that more and more people are concerned about. Pharmacological and psychological treatments do not always work. Among other factors, this is due to the fact that depression is a heterogeneous and complex disorder: not all patients are the same, and we still do not know what works for each person. Plus, we do not fully know how depressive thoughts and negative emotions appear in daily life situations. In this project, we will be looking at some of these crucial questions by investigating the situational perception of patients, i.e., how they experience and see daily situations", says Miquel Domènech.  

By using virtual reality and questionnaires, the researchers will assess how patients with depression consider different situations in the laboratory and in real life: what situations do they perceive as demanding or challenging? Which ones do they see as being adverse, or pleasant? Which make patients be suspicious and become alert? The research team will invite community patients to the research group with open sessions which will collect their opinions on the objectives and methods of the project. At the end of the research, all patients will be informed of the results of the study.

Preventing postpartum depression and anxiety in first-time mothers

Estel Gelabert, from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, is one of the researchers to work on the project "Adaptació i implementació d’una intervenció psicoeducativa per a la prevenció de la depressió postpart i trastorns d’ansietat en mares primerenques" [Adaptation and Implementation of a psychoeducational intervention to prevent postpartum depression and anxiety disorder in first-time mothers]. The research aims to adapt to current contexts gender perspective-based psychoeducational intervention for first-time mothers (and partners) to reduce the prevalence of mental disorders after giving birth. 

"Perinatal mental health problems affect one in every five women during their pregnancy or during the first year postpartum. Mood disorders and anxiety are the most common conditions, and often go together. The effects of perinatal anxiety and depression have been established, not only on the mother's health, but also in the infant's development. Improving perinatal mental health form part of the WHO's Millennium Development Goals and therefore, the implementation of preventive measures in community services should be a priority among health care providers. Our country does not have effective prevention programmes that form and integrated part of postpartum attention, and that is why this study on the effectiveness and implementation of such practices is a must", points out Estel Gelabert.

In the study's first phase, the research team will culturally adapt the psychoeducational intervention, conduct its assessment through focus groups and train midwives working in primary healthcare centres. In the second phase, a randomised clinical trial will be conducted to study its efficacy in the primary health care sector.

Participating in this co-ordinated project is Susanna Subirà, also researcher at the UAB Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, as well as other researchers from the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, including Alba Roca, the project's principal investigator and coordinator.