Horowitz Offers Scientific Insight at Grand Rounds

In January, Boston College Professor June Andrews Horowitz, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN, spoke at the Center for Excellence in Nursing Practice sponsored Nursing Research Grand Rounds. Horowitz’s lecture, Journeying from Clinical Questions to Funding: A Program of Research with Depressed Mothers and Their Infants, focused upon the trajectory of her research into various facets of family mental health, including teasing and bullying, interfaith relationships, and her work in postpartum depression. Throughout her career in research, Horowitz has worked closely with the BWH community.

Despite the clinical significance of postpartum depression, there is limited information on the treatment of postpartum depression and mother-infant relational disturbances. Horowitz’s current research at BWH will test the efficacy of nursing interventions by increasing maternal depression relational effectiveness, reducing maternal depression symptoms and parenting stress, and promoting healthy infant development through home visits. Horowitz’s current work builds on preliminary studies that demonstrated the feasibility of screening women for postpartum depression and tested the impact of a behavioral coaching intervention delivered by nurses to promote maternal-infant responsiveness between depressed mothers and their infants.