New Risk Factors of Postpartum Depression
A Psychotic Illness with Serious Consequences
Feb 24, 2009
Postpartum depression or psychotic illness following childbirth is a relatively rare (one in 1000 mothers) but serious mental condition with strong negative impacts on the mother's and the new baby's health. In the more extreme cases, the postpartum depression can lead to suicide of the mother or harm to the newborn.
In the last decade, this psychotic illness has been taken more seriously into consideration by the medical core and health authorities. More information is available for the general public and new families either through media or medical awareness. However prevention is difficult mainly because the etiology of the disease is poorly understood.
The Symptoms of Postpartum Depression
- The postpartum depression develops suddenly in the first 2-3 weeks after delivery. In comparison the baby blues is a normal reaction to childbirth that develops in the following days after delivery.
- The mother loses contact with reality, having delusions or hallucinations.
- The mother become sad, moody, anxious, agitated.
- The mother is subjected to sleeping and eating disorders
The Treatments
Since the postpartum depression is a psychotic disease, it may be treated with antipsychotic drugs, regular counseling and, in the more extreme cases, hospitalization. As soon as the first symptoms are suspected, the new mother should be considered for an appropriate medical support.
The Risk Factors
Little is known about the risk factors of postpartum diseases. Mothers with personal and family history of depression or psychosis are at an increased risk of developing a postpartum depression. Mothers who had a previous postpartum depression after childbirth are at higher risk of developing a new depression. The risk increases with the number of children. See also this article.
The impact of other factors, such as environmental and economical factors, the social and familial environment, the natural environment, nutrition of the mother is very poorly understood. In consequence the prevention of first-time mothers at risk of postpartum illness is extremely difficult particularly without a medical follow-up after childbirth.
A New Study Identified New Risk Factors of Postpartum Depression
A Swedish Group of Researchers has recently studied a large group of 750,000 first-time Swedish mothers to better understand the factors involved in this psychotic illness. The authors, Par Sparen and colleagues, entitled their study “Psychotic Illness In First-Time Mothers With no Previous Psychiatric Hospitalizations: A Population Based Study” and published in the scientific journal PLoS Medicine (Feb 2009, vol6, n2, e1000013).
The researchers found that the risk of a postpartum depression is increased in the first 90 days after birth. However the risks factors are different if the mother is affected before or after the 90 days after birth. Other factors identified were the maternal age (35 yr or older), birth weight of the child (› 4.5 kg or ‹1.5kg), immigrant status (mother not born in the same country as the newborn child) and single mother status.
Surprisingly maternal diabetes seems protective. In addition, the likelihood of this psychotic illness has decreased in the last decade (1995-2005) compared to the previous decade (1985-1995).
This new studied revealed risk factors that were not suspected before and will probably help to draw future research for understanding the risk factors of postpartum illness and preventing the more tragic consequences of this disease.
