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Depression

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Predicting Postpartum Depression May Be Possible

September 23, 2009

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23 (HealthDay News) — Spanish researchers report that they’ve developed ways to detect 80 percent of cases of postpartum depression, which is estimated to affect more than one in 10 women who give birth.

“Early diagnosis of postnatal [or, postpartum] depression would make it possible to intervene to prevent it from developing among women at risk,” Salvador Tortajada, a researcher at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and lead author of a new study on the methodology, said in a news release from the Scientific Information and News Service in Spain. Read More

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Depression Poses Pregnancy Risks

July 20, 2009

SUNDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) — Thanks to high-profile celebrities like Brooke Shields, postpartum depression is out of the closet and discussed as something to recognize and treat.

But less well known is depression during pregnancy — a common problem as well, and one that also can be risky for the unborn baby, experts now know.

A depressed woman, for instance, is more likely to give birth early, increasing health risks for the baby.

Depression during pregnancy is more common than most people believe, agree Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive perinatal epidemiologist in the research division at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., and Dr. Diana Dell, a psychiatrist and obstetrician-gynecologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Read More

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How Depression During Pregnancy is Linked to Premature Birth

April 17, 2009
depression-pregnancy

Alice Domar, PhD, (left), executive director of Harvard’s Domar Center for Mind/Body Health, and Hope Ricciotti, MD, (right), associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School, at BeWell.com.
By Alice Domar and Hope Ricciotti Courtesy of BeWell.com

About 10% to 20% of women experience depression during pregnancy, but only 2.3% take antidepressant medication to treat it. It is natural for moms-to-be to hesitate to take any kind of medication for fear that it might harm their unborn baby, especially since some studies have shown there may be some basis for this worry.

However, depressed women who aren’t treated during pregnancy can suffer greatly: they are not as able to care for themselves during their pregnancy, and can’t handle the challenges of caring for a newborn.

Now studies have suggested that certain antidepressants taken during pregnancy—or possibly the depression itself—may be linked to a higher risk of preterm birth and neonatal complications. So what’s a woman to do? Read More

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Mothers of Multiples May Face Higher Depression Risk

April 2, 2009

WEDNESDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) — Mothers who deliver two or more babies are more likely to have developed moderate to severe depression within nine months of giving birth than mothers who have a single baby, say U.S. researchers who analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of children born in 2001.

“Our findings suggest that 19 percent of mothers of multiples had moderate to severe depressive symptoms nine months after delivery, compared to 16 percent among mothers of singletons,” the study’s lead author, Yoonjoung Choi, a research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a Hopkins news release. Read More

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Diabetes Linked to Depression During and After Pregnancy

February 25, 2009

TUESDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) — Low-income women with diabetes who are pregnant or recently gave birth face almost twice the risk of depression compared to women without the blood sugar disorder, a new study found.

And, it didn’t matter whether the women developed diabetes before or during pregnancy, or if they were taking insulin or oral medications. The risk of depression was still much stronger for women with diabetes, the study found.

“Those with diabetes have nearly twice the risk of depression during pregnancy and post-partum,” said the study’s lead author, Katy Backes Kozhimannil, a research fellow in the department of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Read More

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Caring Counseling May Ease Postpartum Depression

January 20, 2009

FRIDAY, Jan. 16 (HealthDay News) — Either in person or over the phone, women struggling with postpartum depression can be treated effectively by professionals or mothers who have gone through the same thing, two studies find.

Both reports, published in the Jan. 16 online edition of BMJ, find that talk therapy and caring communication can help new mothers deal with their depression without the need for antidepressants. Read More

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3 Questions Can Spot Possible Postpartum Depression

September 2, 2008

TUESDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) — Three simple questions were just as good as conventional screening for identifying potential postpartum depression among new mothers.

“Postpartum depression is under-diagnosed,” said Dr. Adam Aponte, a pediatrician and associate director for recruitment and retention at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. “We found the fewer the questions, the better. It opens the door for dialogue about how the mom is doing. The last thing you want is a depressed mom. It’s important to screen.” Read More

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Many Women Struggle With Challenge of a Newborn

August 6, 2008

TUESDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) — Many new mothers in the United States struggle with chronic emotional and physical problems, often with little or no support from their husbands or partners, all the while trying to meet the needs of their newborns, and in some cases the pressure to return to work, a new report finds.

“Mothers of young children in the United States are in a rather untenable situation,” said Carol Sakala, an author of the report and director of programs for Childbirth Connection, a national not-for-profit organization that works to improve the quality of maternity care. Read More

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