Marker found for post-natal depression

Scientists say they have found a biological marker that can spot pregnant women at risk of depression after childbirth.

Up to 15 per cent of women are believed to suffer from post-childbirth depression, more serious than baby blues, and the research team members believe that a reliable early warning test would be helpful.

Professor Victor Pop, of the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, said a study showed that women with certain thyroid antibodies during pregnancy were nearly three times more likely to become depressed after childbirth.

The presence of the thyroid peroxidase antibodies also indicated an auto-immune thyroid disorder, but the affected brain receptors were similar to those involved in depression.

Professor Pop said 310 women were visited when they were 12 and 32 weeks pregnant and again 4, 12, 20, 28 and 36 weeks after birth. Antibody testing was performed and depression assessed at every visit.

Data on 291 women available for analysis showed that 41 (14.1 per cent) had the antibodies in their blood on one or more occasions and 117 (40.1 per cent) had depression once or more after childbirth.

The authors found that the antibody was independently related to depression at 12 weeks during pregnancy and at 4 and 12 weeks after childbirth.

Even after excluding 51 women who had had depression before, the presence of the antibody in early pregnancy was associated with 2.9 times the risk of depression after childbirth.

The researchers said the antibody test was not a diagnostic tool for detecting depression, but it could help doctors to identify women at risk of depression as part of routine screening in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

They said a major problem with depression was that many patients never sought help.

Even when they did, the diagnosis was missed in half of all cases.

- REUTERS

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