14 DAY TRIAL // A surprisingly high number of new mothers suffer from symptoms associated with postnatal depression, and a new study suggest that antidepressant drugs administered early on may help with this.
This condition has slipped under the radar for many years, but now experts are beginning to recognize that it represents a substantial public health problem, which affects 10 percent of all new mothers.
At this point, official statistics show that healthcare experts only detect and treat an estimated 50 percent of all cases, which means that roughly half of them go untreated.
This is very worrying, because the condition has a wide array of negative, long-lasting consequences, that affect mothers, babies, their family, friends and colleagues.
But giving antidepressants to these women early on after birth, when the first symptoms are starting to show, may be an great way of reducing the chance of such consequences developing.
The conclusion belongs to a new research, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom.
Funds for this investigation were secured under the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment (HIHR HTA) program.
One of the main conclusions in the new research is that postnatal depression, just like any other forms of depression, is easily curable once it is detected.
In the new work, the research team, which was led by Professor Deborah Sharp from the UB School of Social and Community Medicine, analyzed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of antidepressants.
They compared the results this type of drug therapy had on a group of women, to those obtained when community-based psychosocial intervention was applied to another group. Some 254 women took part in the study.
“Although many women, at least initially, revealed a preference for listening visits, it would appear that starting women on antidepressants early in the course of illness is likely to result in the greatest improvement in symptoms,” the team leader says.
“There is an urgent need for GPs [listening visits] and Hvs [research health visitor ] to agree the care pathway for women who suffer from postnatal depression, not only for the benefit of the mother, but also the child,” Sharp adds.
Details of the new investigation were published in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Health Technology Assessment.