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A Multivariate Investigation of Postpartum Mood Disturbance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. R. Gard ,
Sheila L. Handley ,
A. D. Parsons  and
Gillian Waldron
P. R. Gard
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacy, Brighton Polytechnic, Moulsecombe, Brighton
Sheila L. Handley*
Affiliation:
Drug Mechanisms Research Unit, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Aston, Birmingham
A. D. Parsons
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham
Gillian Waldron
Affiliation:
The London Hospital Medical College, London E1
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The interrelationships of ‘blues' and later postpartum depression with a number of biochemical, medical, and psychosocial variables have been examined in 52 subjects. The two syndromes shared only an impressive association with a prior history of gynaecological problems. Puerperal ‘blues' was characterised in addition by associations with primiparity, tearfulness during pregnancy, and reduced plasma total tryptophan in the early Puerperium. Depressive symptomatology up to nine months postpartum was related to an excess of male births and to an altered pattern of decline of non-esterified fatty acids immediately postpartum. In each case, the ‘risk’ variables were statistically independent and combined linearly. Stepwise discriminant analysis successfully discriminated ‘blues' and depression from their respective non-cases. ‘Blues and postpartum depression were only weakly related and, apart from gynaecological history, each was associated with separate and independent causative factors.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 148 , Issue 5 , May 1986 , pp. 567 - 575
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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