Treating Postpartum Depression: Beyond the Baby Blues

A recent study of 300 maternal deaths within a year after delivery found that suicide was the seventh-leading cause of maternal death. Though PMADs overwhelmingly affect women with a history of depression or anxiety, they are indiscriminate, affecting mothers with no prior history whatsoever. And not treating it is consequential. A growing body of evidence is showing that a lack of treatment puts children at greater risk for displaying lower cognitive performance and social intelligence, developing learning disorders later in life, and even developing psychiatric illness in adulthood. And yet, PMADs are woefully understudied, underdiagnosed, and thus, poorly treated. However, over the last decade new research has been shedding light on this sometimes-devastating condition, and one remarkable new treatment in particular is bringing much -needed hope to suffering mothers.