Telephone Peer Support for New Fathers to Prevent Depressive Symptoms After the Child's Birth

The overall purpose of the pilot study is to investigate whether telephone support from fathers to fathers reduces depressive symptoms and stress among new fathers in Sweden. Forty expectant fathers with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)> 10 two weeks after the birth of the child are divided into two groups where half are allocated to telephone support by other fathers (intervention) as a complement to existing parental support, other group get traditionally existing parental support (control). The fathers in the intervention group were allocated telephone-based support from volunteers who have father experience, not mental illness and have undergone training through this project. These volunteers will be trained and supported by trained mentors. Four months after the child is born, data is collected with questionnaires. The intervention group will be compared with the control group and the results from the pilot study form the basis for the forthcoming RCT. Karolinska Institutet's ethics committee has approved the study. Clinical relevance: The long-term goal of this project is to improve the methods for reducing mental illness among fathers, which leads to a positive development for their children and can be used in the development of clinical guidelines to identify and reduce fathers' stress and depressive symptoms.