ACOG Opinion: Depression Screening for All Pregnant and Postpartum Women
It is estimated that about 15% of women suffer from depression either during pregnancy or the postpartum period. Prior to the 1980s, most new mothers had never heard of postpartum depression. Â Over the last few decades we have made considerable progress in educating women about their risk for psychiatric illness during this vulnerable time, and women now have a much more sophisticated understanding of depression as a real, but treatable, illness. [...]
Women Who Discontinue Mood Stabilizers During Pregnancy: High Risk for Postpartum Relapse
Multiple studies have demonstrated that the postpartum period is a time of increased vulnerability in women with bipolar disorder. Â However, because many of the commonly used mood stabilizers carry some teratogenic risk, many women elect to discontinue use of mood stabilizers during pregnancy. A recent study from Italy has examined risk for postpartum illness in a group of women with bipolar disorder who discontinued their medication during pregnancy. The researchers reviewed [...]
SSRI Antidepressants and PPHN: Much Lower Risk Than Previously Reported
In 2006, Chambers and colleagues published an article linking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant use during late pregnancy to an increased risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension in the newborn (PPHN). PPHN is a cardiovascular syndrome typically occurring in full-term or near-term infants. After birth, the infant’s pulmonary vascular resistance remains high; blood is shunted away from the lungs and is therefore not fully oxygenated.  Newborns with PPHN typically present with [...]
More Pediatricians Are Screening for Postpartum Depression
An article published today in the US News and World Report discusses the expanded role pediatric health care providers are playing in screening new mothers for postpartum depression.  Because pediatricians have frequent contacts with the mother during the first year of a child's life and because depression in the mother may negatively affect the child, the American Academy of Pediatricians now recommends that "There has been progress, but it's still not the [...]
Postpartum Depression Affects Initiation But Not Duration of Breastfeeding
For decades, researchers have postulated a connection between breastfeeding and postpartum depression (PPD). However, the research examining the association between postpartum depression and breastfeeding has been somewhat difficult to interpret. A recent cross-sectional study yields some new information regarding the relationship between depression and breastfeeding. Families with children aged 12 months or younger participating in the 2011 National Survey of Children's Health (10,024 children) were assessed. The researchers measured associations between [...]
Andrew Solomon In the NY Times About Depression During Pregnancy
In 2001, Andrew Solomon published The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. Â As somebody who has long suffered from depression, Mr. Solomon brings to this book a nuanced understanding of depression -- looking at it from many different angles: Â personal, cultural, scientific, and political. Â An updated version of his book will be released next week and will include a chapter on depression emerging in the context of pregnancy. This chapter is [...]