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Updated: May 27, 2026

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Quality assessment of observational studies in psychiatry: an example from perinatal psychiatric research
L E Ross1, S Grigoriadis, L Mamisashvili
1Social and Epidemiological Research Department, Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada. l.ross@utoronto.ca
Abstract:
In perinatal psychiatry, randomized controlled trials are often not feasible on ethical grounds. Many studies are observational in nature, while others employ large databases not designed primarily for research purposes. Quality assessment of the resulting research is complicated by a lack of standardized tools specifically for this purpose. The aim of this paper is to describe the Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR), a quality assessment tool our team devised for a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of evidence-based literature regarding risks and benefits of antidepressant medication during pregnancy.
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