On this page

APP is passionate about supporting research into postpartum psychosis (PP).

We began as a university research panel in the 1990s to help facilitate studies of PP, and were previously hosted by the University of Birmingham. We are a national charity, in 2025 becoming GSK IMPACT award winners, and we work closely with the National Centre for Mental Health, Cardiff.

Watch our research seminar about some of the current studies we are supporting here.

We are currently supporting work in the following areas:

  • Molecular genetic and clinical studies
  • Enhancing psychological recovery after PP
  • Understanding the role of sleep
  • Outcomes and satisfaction following Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) and general adult admission
  • Experiences and barriers to care for those from diverse communities

**Please note, we are currently seeking funds to continue to support PP research. Until we have secured new core funds for a research manager role to oversee our Lived Experience research panel database, researcher communication and study management, we cannot support new studies. Please bear with us while we seek this core capacity. If you are writing an application or have secured funds that include the delivery of APP training,  email training@app-network.org. If you are writing a funding application or have secured funds that includes core costs for APP to support you, please get in touch.**

Please get in touch using the form below to tell us about your PP research plans or findings. If we have capacity to support, we will.

What we can help with

  • Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) activities
  • PP academic, clinical and lived experience expertise
  • Understanding research questions of importance to women, families and perinatal health professionals
  • Study planning and design
  • Lived experience panels
  • Lived experience/expert review of questionnaire/study information
  • Funder engagement, case studies and quotes
  • Recruitment and advertising
  • Focus groups
  • Results interpretation
  • Dissemination and implementation
  • Offering peer support and signposting to your participants who want to discuss any feelings or issues the study has raised for them

What we can't help with

  • We are not yet able to fund research into PP ourselves, but we engage with funders to highlight the importance of supporting PP studies.
  • We have limited capacity to support projects that are unfunded at the moment, but get in touch to tell us about your plans and if we can help, we will.

Our reach

  • APP has around 25,000 followers across social media platforms. These mainly include families with lived experience, health professionals, academics, charities, policy makers and journalists.
  • Our lived experience community includes more than 2,000 people with lived experience of PP in the UK, and more throughout the world.
  • Our peer support forum has 3,500 users.
  • Our regular e-news goes to more than 2,000 people.
  • We have a panel of Lived Experience Researchers trained in qualitative research, and other volunteers with lived experience willing to comment on studies.

What we ask from you

Please get in touch at an early stage in research planning to cost in APP support. Our resources are stretched, and we rely on funding to support our involvement in research.

We ask that you acknowledge APP’s support on study information and adverts, grant applications and publications.

We ask you to write up your study for the APP website, so that results can be accessed by women and families affected by PP.

Get in touch

If you would like to share your research with APP, or discuss collaborating with APP, please do take a few moments to complete this form, so that we have all your details and to see if APP can help you.

If you have any questions, please email the team at research@app-network.org.

A copy of our privacy policy can be found on the APP website here: www.app-network.org/privacy-policy.