Women's Committee

This page is designated for the IPS Women's Committee.  More information will be added soon.

The APAWomen listserve, available to all women members, enhances dialogue on issues most significant to female psychiatrists. The online mentorship feature encourages members to share their personal views and advice for balancing work and family responsibilities. A popular section lists the latest job postings as well as announcements of government and privately sponsored programs for the advancement of women doctors. The service supports women in psychiatry and strives to advance their careers in a field where women are still a minority. To join the APAWomen listserve , members should send their name, email, and member number to women@psych.org.

Articles

Small Study Suggests Women Who Take Fish Oil Supplements During Pregnancy May Have Fewer Symptoms Of Postpartum Depression.
The Time (4/12, Park) "Healthland" blog reported that, at the Experimental Biology meeting, researchers from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing "reported the results of a trial showing that women who took fish oil supplements during pregnancy had fewer symptoms of postpartum depression than women who took placebo." For the study, researchers followed 52 "pregnant women who took either 200 mg of fish oil, in the form of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), or a placebo, daily from their 24th week of pregnancy to birth." Participants "also filled out questionnaires to rate their depressive symptoms, before the trial and four more times postpartum."

        Researchers found that "women who took the fish oil capsules had significantly fewer symptoms of postpartum depression than those who took the placebo," HealthDay (4/12, Preidt) reported. However, "one expert said the jury is still out on fish oil's ability to curb postpartum blues." Shari I. Lusskin, MD, director of reproductive psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, stated that the study's results "must be replicated on a larger scale with proper controls for a number of medical and psychosocial factors before concluding that omega-3 fatty acid consumption lowers the risk of postpartum depression." The UK's Daily Mail (4/12, Macrae) also covered the story.
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ENDOCRINE SOCIETY EXPERT CAN PROVIDE CLARITY ON MENOPAUSAL HORMONE THERAPY AND RISK OF BREAST CANCER
Chevy Chase, MD (October 20, 2010)— Richard J. Santen, MD, lead author of The Endocrine Society’s Scientific Statement on menopausal hormone therapy, can provide clarity on the association of hormone therapy and increased risk of breast cancer as reported in an article published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The new study published in JAMA found that women who took estrogen and progesterone to treat menopausal symptoms and developed breast cancer were more likely to have cancerous lymph nodes and were more likely to die from the disease than were breast cancer patients who had never taken hormones. The results confirm trends reported in the Society’s scientific statement.

Dr. Santen, professor of medicine at the University of Virginia Health System, is available to provide comment on the JAMA study and further clarify the association between hormone therapy and breast cancer development and mortality.   

The Society’s scientific statement on menopausal hormone therapy can be found at: http://www.endo-society.org/journals/scientificstatements. The Hormone Foundation, the patient education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, recently published a fact sheet to provide information on the current state of the science regarding postmenopausal hormone therapy. This fact sheet can be found at: http://www.hormone.org/upload/postmenopausal-hormone-therapy-061910.pdf.

WHO:              Dr. Richard J. Santen
                       Endocrine Society spokesperson on menopausal hormone therapy
                       Professor of Medicine
                       University of Virginia Health System

WHAT:            Dr. Santen, lead author of “Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy: An Endocrine Society Scientific     
                       Statement” is available to discuss the risk of breast cancer association with menopausal hormone therapy.

CONTACT:      To schedule an interview with Dr. Santen, please contact Arlyn G. Riskind at ariskind@endo-society.org
                       or 301-941-0240; 202-431-9495

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