In early studies designed to identify specific risk factors for postpartum depression, unplanned pregnancy was identified as a relatively weak predictor of postpartum depression. But there are many different types of unplanned pregnancy. For example, [...]
It’s a quiet week in the world of women’s mental health. Good time to catch up on reading. Behavioral outcomes in children exposed prenatally to lamotrigine, valproate, or carbamazepine. Deshmukh U, Adams J, Macklin [...]
In our community of perinatal psychiatrists, we have recently seen many questions regarding the use of folic acid supplementation in women taking lamotrigine (Lamictal). While all recognize that all women of childbearing age should receive [...]
This week, there is an interesting article from Tepper and colleagues which observes that about half of women have prominent vasomotor symptoms which persist over many years, often more than a decade. Characterizing the [...]
Researchers from the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine and the Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment Consortium have just released a free iPhone app which new mothers can use to diagnose postpartum [...]
Serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants may affect platelet aggregation and thus may increase the risk of bleeding. Several studies have sought to determine if exposure to SSRI antidepressants in late pregnancy is associated with an [...]
As we move toward universal screening for perinatal depression, one of our most significant challenges will be to evaluate and deliver care to the women who are identified as being depressed. It is discouraging [...]
This week a study published by Kieviet and colleagues gives us more information on the mechanism of poor neonatal adaptation in infants prenatally exposed to SSRIs and suggests that levels of maternal psychological distress [...]
![By Vera Kratochvil [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://womensmentalhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Mother_Kissing_Baby-320x202.jpg)
About a year ago, we first reported on SAGE-547 (SAGE Therapeutics), a new medication for the treatment of severe postpartum depression. SAGE-547 is a new drug, an allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors, which was initially [...]
Despite the increasing use of the newer “atypical” or second-generation antipsychotic agents to treat a spectrum of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, PTSD and other anxiety disorders, we have relatively little data [...]
