Beyond the Baby Blues: A Pilot Intervention to Enhance Well-Being in Trauma Exposed New Mothers
This pilot randomized controlled trial will evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a mobile neurofeedback intervention for increasing maternal overall well-being, and measuring whether mothers experience any subsequent reductions in trauma symptoms and parenting stress and enhancements in regard to emotional regulation, parenting sensitivity and positive parenting behaviors, as well as infant socio-emotional development and behavioral outcomes (i.e., crying, fussing) among postpartum mothers with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The investigators hypothesize that mothers who receive the neurofeedback intervention will demonstrate larger decreases in mental health symptoms, greater improvements in emotional regulation and observed parenting behaviors, increased feelings of parenting competency, decreased feelings of parenting stress, and reductions in the potential for child maltreatment than mothers in the control group. The investigators also hypothesize that infants of mothers who receive the neurofeedback intervention will demonstrate less crying and fussiness and higher scores on socio-emotional developmental assessments than infants of mothers in the control group at the posttest interval.
• The inclusion criteria for mothers will be 1) a score of 2+ on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure for childhood trauma exposure; 2) a score of 3+ on the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5) screening measure for PTSD symptoms OR endorsement of 2 or more past-month symptoms of moderate or greater severity on the depersonalization/derealization subscale of the Dissociative Subtype of PTSD Scale (DSPS); 3) having a child who is between the ages of 3-9 months old; 3) having a personal phone or tablet device that is compatible with the MUSE 2 neurofeedback device.