Postpartum depression risk in female veterans
Official title: Validating an animal model of female veteran risk factors for postpartum depression
Funded at Veterans Health Administration · NIH-11212783 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers are creating a rat model that mimics the repeated stresses female veterans often face to learn how those stresses may lead to postpartum depression.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Veterans Health Administration NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Columbia, United States) |
| Project start | October 1, 2024 |
| Project end | September 30, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| NIH project number | 5I21BX006218-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11212783 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates for future human studies based on this work would be pregnant or recently postpartum female veterans with a history of traumatic or chronic stress who are experiencing depressive symptoms.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not postpartum, who lack a history of traumatic or chronic stress, or who are male are unlikely to see direct benefit from this specific line of preclinical research.
What this research studies
If you are a female veteran worried about postpartum depression, this project uses female rats to mirror the repeated and unpredictable stresses many veterans experience before, during, and after pregnancy. The researchers will give rats weeks of unpredictable stress, mate them, add more stress during pregnancy, and then watch postpartum behaviors like signs of depression, anxiety, and maternal care. They will compare these animals to rats with single stress exposures and to non-stressed controls, and measure stress hormones and brain-level changes to find biological differences. The goal is a lab model that better reflects the experiences of female veterans so future treatments and preventions can be developed.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could reveal biological changes tied to chronic stress in female veterans and guide development of better prevention or treatments for postpartum depression.
How similar studies have gone: Existing animal models of postpartum depression typically use single stress exposures or hormone withdrawal, so this multi-stress model is a newer approach and less established.
Where this research is happening
-
Veterans Health Administration
Columbia, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hollis, Fiona E. — Veterans Health Administration
- Study coordinator: Hollis, Fiona E.
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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Understanding postpartum depression in female veterans using an animal model
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ROSE Scale-Up: Expanding universal postpartum depression prevention for new mothers
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.