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Perinatal interventions for parents with complex post-traumatic stress disorder: is there any evidence of benefit?

Part of: BJPsych Advances Cochrane Corner and Round the Corner Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2025

Rhian Bold Open the ORCID record for Rhian Bold [Opens in a new window]
Rhian Bold*
Affiliation:
Currently working as a Core Trainee in Psychiatry (CT2) with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, based at Littlemore Health Centre, Oxford, UK. Prior to retraining as a doctor, Rhian completed the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme and is interested in perinatal mental health, leadership and medical education.
*
Correspondence Rhian Bold. Email: rhian.bold@doctors.org.uk
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Summary

The perinatal period is an important time for infant and parent. Vulnerable parents with pre-existing challenges, such as adverse experiences in their own childhood, might find the transition to parenthood particularly hard. The Cochrane Review considered here sought to assess the effectiveness of parenting interventions provided to parents with symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder and/or a history of childhood maltreatment, with the aim of improving the parents’ well-being or parenting capacity. In this commentary we focus on how the limited evidence base, along with some key aspects of the review’s methodology, might have influenced its finding that such interventions showed little or no benefit.

Keywords

Childhood experiencemental health servicesperinatal psychiatrytrauma and stressor-related disorderswell-being

Information

Type
Round the corner
Information
BJPsych Advances , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , July 2025 , pp. 196 - 200
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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Footnotes

†

Commentary on… Interventions from pregnancy to two years after birth for parents experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder and/or with childhood experience of maltreatment (Cochrane Corner). See this issue.

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