Publications by authors named "Siobhan A Loughnan"

Background: The IMPROVE (IMproving Perinatal Mortality Review and Outcomes Via Education) eLearning, developed by the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence in partnership with the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand was launched in December 2019. Based on the successful face-to-face program, the eLearning aims to increase availability and accessibility of high-quality online education to healthcare professionals providing care for families around the time of perinatal death, to improve the delivery of respectful and supportive clinical care and increase best practice investigation of perinatal deaths.

Aims: To evaluate participants' reported learning outcomes (change in knowledge and confidence) and overall acceptability of the program.

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Background: Perinatal depression and anxiety are associated with significant adverse effects for the mother and child. Online cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) can provide scalable access to psychological interventions to improve perinatal depression and anxiety, however, few studies have examined the effectiveness of these interventions in routine care. This study investigated the uptake and treatment outcomes of women living in the Australian community who enrolled in a pregnancy or postnatal iCBT program for their symptoms of depression and anxiety.

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Introduction: Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the provision of healthcare and efficiency of healthcare systems and is likely to have profound implications for pregnant and postpartum women and their families including those who experience the tragedy of stillbirth or neonatal death. This study aims to understand the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 and the experiences of parents who have accessed maternity, neonatal and bereavement care services during this time.

Methods And Analysis: An international, cross-sectional, online and/or telephone-based/face-to-face survey is being administered across 15 countries and available in 11 languages.

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Background: Despite its potential scalability, little is known about the outcomes of internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when it is provided with minimal guidance from a clinician.

Aim: To evaluate the outcomes of minimally guided iCBT for PTSD in a randomised control trial (RCT, Study 1) and in an open trial in routine community care (Study 2).

Method: A RCT compared the iCBT course (=21) to a waitlist control (WLC, =19) among participants diagnosed with PTSD.

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Background: Stillbirth and neonatal death are devastating pregnancy outcomes with long-lasting psychosocial consequences for parents and families, and wide-ranging economic impacts on health systems and society. It is essential that parents and families have access to appropriate support, yet services are often limited. Internet-based programs may provide another option of psychosocial support for parents following the death of a baby.

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Perinatal anxiety and depression are common and associated with negative outcomes if left untreated. Internet-delivered treatments can improve treatment accessibility and have demonstrated effectiveness in treating anxiety and depression in the general adult population. However, little is known about how effective and acceptable these interventions are for perinatal women.

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Background: Anxiety and depression are common during pregnancy and associated with adverse outcomes for the mother and infant if left untreated. Despite the need to improve treatment accessibility and uptake in this population, no studies have investigated internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) for antenatal anxiety and depression. In a randomised controlled trial, we examined the efficacy and acceptability of a brief, unguided iCBT intervention - the MUMentum Pregnancy program - in pregnant women with anxiety and/or depression.

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Maternal anxiety is common during the perinatal period, and despite the negative outcomes of anxiety on the mother and infant, its treatment has received limited attention. This paper describes the first review of psychological interventions for clinical anxiety during the perinatal period. A systematic search was carried out of six electronic databases.

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Background: We aimed to evaluate the acceptability and efficacy of two brief, Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy interventions-MUMentum Pregnancy (study 1) and MUMentum Postnatal (study 2)-in reducing maternal symptoms of anxiety, depression and overall psychological distress compared to usual care in the perinatal period.

Methods/design: Women who are pregnant (study 1) or < 12 months postpartum (study 2) with current clinically elevated symptoms of anxiety and/or depression according to validated self-report measures, will be recruited via the research arm of a not-for-profit clinical and research unit in Australia and randomised to the intervention group or treatment as usual control group. The minimum sample size for each study (alpha 0.

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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of the Global Burden of Disease. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for MDD, but access can be impaired due to numerous barriers. Internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) can be utilised to overcome treatment barriers and is an effective treatment for depression, but has never been compared to bibliotherapy.

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The dot-probe task (DPT) is a reaction time measure of attentional bias. Research using this task has found inconsistent patterns of appearance-related attentional biases in women. This study examined the effects of a novel priming variation of the DPT, which incorporated additional cues into each trial of the task, on measurement of such biases.

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Background: Internet cognitive-behavioural therapy (iCBT) for panic disorder of up to 10 lessons is well established. The utility of briefer programmes is unknown.

Aims: To determine the efficacy and effectiveness of a five-lesson iCBT programme for panic disorder.

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The potential of attention bias modification to reduce appearance-related attentional biases and female body dissatisfaction has not been investigated. Immediate and short-term effects were therefore examined across attentional biases, state and trait body dissatisfaction in a randomised controlled trial consisting of 62 female participants aged 18-35 years. The results show no changes to attentional bias across either the experimental or control condition and no significant changes in body dissatisfaction immediately post-training or at 1-2 weeks follow-up.

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