Women who are pregnant and have significant symptoms of depression could be at greater risk of complications from the flu, an Ohio State University study released yesterday suggests. Researchers had 22 pregnant women complete questionnaires about their depressive symptoms, then took blood samples after the women had received flu shots. They found the women with the most severe symptoms of depression had double the response to the vaccine as those who weren’t depressed.

The researchers suggest that their responses might also be more severe to an actual influenza infection, and that these women might be more susceptible to complications. The study appears online and is scheduled for eventual print publication in Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended for several years that pregnant women get vaccinated against seasonal flu, but only about 12-13% actually do. And pregnant women have been more vulnerable to the H1N1 flu circulating since April, accounting for 6% of all deaths in the U.S. from the virus even though they make up just 1% of the population.

Learn more about the study … 

Learn more about the flu and pregnancy …

Tags: H1N1, influenza, pregnancy, vaccination

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 9:25 am and is filed under Baby Talk, From the Wire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.