There ’s Now An Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

Treating depression is complex and time-consuming, since matching patients to the right drug treatment is a matter of trial and error that can take weeks or even months. And post partum depression, which affects up to 20% of new mothers in the first six weeks after giving birth, is no different. On August 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved zuranolone, or Zurzuvae, for treating postpartum depression. The drug, developed by Massachusetts-based biotechs Sage Therapeutics and Biogen, is a pill that women take once a day for 14 days and is the first oral treatment for the major depressive condition. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “It’s amazing that we are starting to think about postpartum depression more and more, and starting to create novel treatments that for a long time went under recognized,” says Dr. Samantha Latorre, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the zuranolone studies. The companies had requested that the FDA approve zuranolone for both post partum and major depressive disorder, and provided data supporting both indications. The agency, however, only announced approval for treating post partum and did not provide an explanation for that decision in its announcement. One study of the drug in several hundred people with major depressive disorder showed early and rapid improvement of symptoms, but that change wasn’t sustained; by the end of the trea...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news