Dear Friend,

Thank you for your interest in our clinical research program in depression during pregnancy ("antepartum depresion"). Before you complete our questionnaire, we would like to tell you about our procedures and objectives. We are offering non-pharmacological treatment for alleviation of symptoms that are associated with depressed mood during pregnancy. Ours is a research program in which you would receive home treatment under expert clinical supervision, while allowing us to learn more about the disorder and how it may best be treated. We are conducting a controlled study using specially-designed devices that replenish naturally occurring light. During the course of the study, you would use an apparatus to increase daily light.

As a participant you would receive treatment and loan of the light apparatus for use at home at no cost to you. If you agree to participate in this study, a review of your medical history will confirm that you are under the care of an obstetrician, and that you are in stable medical health. We will provide standard blood and urine tests at no charge. During the study, you would also receive a series of tests designed to measure your melatonin cycle before and after treatment.

Pending review of your application, you would receive an initial interview by telephone to determine whether you would be likely to benefit by these experimental treatments and could meet the scheduling requirements of the study. The next step is a personal clinical evaluation session, followed by an orientation session. Once the symptoms are apparent, home treatment begins on a daily basis, and you would maintain close contact with our staff. Assignment to the various light treatments we are testing is made randomly, but over the course of the study, you would be given an opportunity to try both methods, to see which works best for you. Over a period of about two months, we would also schedule several visits to our clinic at the University of Pittsburgh for evaluation of treatment effectiveness. After participation in the study is complete, we offer continuing treatment throughout the remaining months of pregnancy for those who have shown benefit.

Please note that all information you provide is confidential, and that when we call we will not identify ourselves to anyone but you. Completing and returning the application does not obligate you to participate in our study. In addition, if you are invited to enter our program, you will have the option of discontinuing at any time. A prompt response will allow us to give you priority consideration.

If you do not wish to become a research volunteer, but instead seek a private referral in the Pittsburgh, PA area, please complete the application anyway, noting your request at the top.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Katherine L. Wisner,
Director of the Antepartum Depression Group