Postpartum Depression Is Fundamentally Different From Other Mood Disorders

As many as 1 in 5 new mothers will suffer from severe depression or anxiety after giving birth, and a woman is significantly more likely to suffer from one of these conditions during her first year as a mother than at any other time in her life. And yet, perinatal mood disorders are still woefully under-recognized ― post-partum anxiety, for instance, isn’t even listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ― and also under-researched.  “This is a big deal: 10 to 20 percent of our moms are mentally ill, but we know virtually nothing about how these mental illnesses change the maternal brain,” Dr. Jodi Pawluski, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Rennes in France, told The Huffington Post. “Ten to 20 percent of our kids have moms that are mentally ill. ... This affects us all.” Post-partum mental health problems may appear similar to depression and anxiety in its usual forms, but what we know so far suggests that they are very distinct. A study published this week in the journal Trends in Neuroscience shows that postpartum mood disorders involve fundamentally different brain activity from those not occurring in new mothers.  “Motherhood really can change the mother, which is something we often overlook,” Pawluski added in a statement. “And we forget about examining the neurobiology of maternal mental health and maternal mental illness, particular...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news