Postpartum depression diagnoses have doubled in the last 10 years: study

I am diagnoses of depression have doubled post-partum in just 10 years. To reveal it isa new study published last November 2nd on JamaNetwork.

The researchers looked at 442,308 women giving birthwho gave birth to their children between 2010 and 2021recording an incidence of depression in this period of time post partum which the first year of the research corresponded to 9.4%, the last year to 19% of births.

The study on postpartum depression

Postpartum depression has been defined by researchers as the most common adverse outcome of pregnancywith persistent feelings of anxiety, sadness, loss of interest and pleasure in daily activities, much more than in the case of baby blues.

The state of compromised mental health, which can affect mothers after giving birththe scholars explain, is worth it research and interest from sciencesince if in less severe outcomes it can give rise to lower rates of breastfeeding, e.g a compromised bond between mother and child and to a worse development of the latter, but in the more serious ones also to cases of infanticide-suicide.

In the 10 years of studies, the researchers realized that the maximum peak of diagnoses of postpartum depression was found by them in 2013, 2018 and 2019.

The director of the women’s mental health department at Montefiore Medical Center Rubiahna Vaughn, tried to explain on the pages of abcnews the reason for this increase. According to the doctor many women struggle to find the right support and the right medical care for this condition, a situation that is significantly worsened for women giving birth who gave birth to their babies during lock-down.

For this reason, he believes it is important to act with preventive measures, especially towards those women who the study revealed to be more at risk when it comes to post-partum depression:

• The provenancePostpartum depression appears to primarily affect black and non-Hispanic white women, with very high increases in Asian and Pacific Islander women.
• Age: Women who become mothers later in life appear to be the most susceptible to postpartum depression.
• The use of narcotic substances: women who had used drugs seemed to be the same.
• Reluctance to prescribe antidepressants: a tendency during pregnancy is to scare women about using antidepressants, this would lead them to silence themselves and fear revealing their psychological state.

The importance of intervening immediately

On the pages of abcNews Professor Vaughn said not preventing or treating postpartum depression means leaving women worse off without being able to build a relationship with your child.

Children also risk, as research shows, being born prematurely, or developing anxiety and mood disorders from a very young age.

Not only that, very serious post-partum depression can also lead the mother to record episodes of violence against herself and her baby.

“Con early interventionsantidepressants administered by experts, therapy, the woman can return to feeling well and living her life peacefully, as a parent, as a woman and as an integral part of society” Vaughn concluded.