This is the 8th European Training School of Riseup-PPD organized by the COST Action RISEUP-PPD, which includes researchers from the e-perinatal project.
Throughout the week, more than twenty experts from all over Europe have gathered at Universidad Loyola to celebrate the eighth session of the Training School of the COST Action called RISEUP-PPD, Research innovation and sustainable pan-European network in peripartum depression disorder.
The training has been developed by the Working Group on Assessment Approaches and Methods in postpartum depression, whose main objective is to evaluate, develop and define standard procedures to assess women diagnosed with postpartum depression, to collect genetic and epigenetic biomarkers, to assess the impact on newborn and infant development and to assess interpersonal functioning (mother-infant dyad and father-mother-infant triad).
The aim of this Training School is to advance and exchange knowledge with health professionals on the measures used to assess the neurodevelopment of infants and children. It has also included two workshops related to ethical aspects of the evaluation of infant neurodevelopment, issues that require ethical reflection and a series of scientific methods and standards in this regard. This training was given by the researcher Susanne Uusitalo, PhD in Philosophy at the University of Turku, Finland, who is responsible for the Finnish unit of the International Chair of Bioethics and leader of the working group of this project on Ethical standards and procedures for clinical research in postpartum depression. In addition, taking advantage of her visit, the researcher has offered a seminar to all researchers at Universidad Loyola about Ethics of scientific research.
The other workshop was on Research and Treatment and Sensory Processing. For this, we hosted Helga O. Miguel, researcher in the Section of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, who focuses on behavioral and neuroscientific methods to learn more about sensation, perception and emotion in typically developing infants and children and in infants/children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
During the workshop, she analyzed the effects of sensorimotor processing on brain function in infants and children , focusing on touch and movement. Moreover, she explained how basic sensorimotor processes are related to developmental outcomes in typically developing infants and in infants at risk for developmental disorders, specifically autism.
The training was organized by Universidad Loyola researchers and members of the international Riseup-PPD network Emma Motrico and Rosalba Company. Dr. Emma Motrico is the Principal Investigator of the e-Perinatal Project “Universal prevention of maternal perinatal mental disorders and its implementation as normalized routine practice”.
This project, whose acronym is e-Perinatal, led by the researcher at Universidad Loyola, develops a personalized App for mothers and their partners to prevent perinatal depression and anxiety. It is also the first project that will analyze how to prevent depression in parents or partners and the effectiveness of such interventions in babies.
COST actions are networks dedicated to scientific collaboration whose objective is to strengthen scientific research in Europe by funding collaborative networks between researchers. This is why such meetings are organized between researchers and health professionals from all over Europe.
