A recent Newsweek article titled Not Always ‘The Happiest Time’ looks at pregnancy and depression. Although roughly 20% of pregnant women suffer depression (comparable to the general population) it may be overlooked due to assumptions that pregnancy makes you happy or somehow wards against depression.
Even as postpartum depression has become morning-television fodder, the problem of depression during pregnancy has remained hidden—largely because most people still assume that pregnancy is or should be the realization of every woman’s dream. When she was training as a psychiatric resident in the 1980s, Katherine Wisner, now a professor of psychiatry and Ob-Gyn at the University of Pittsburgh, remembers being told not to worry about pregnant patients who were, in her view, “very ill.” Pregnant women, her teachers said, are “psychologically fulfilled.”
Treating depression in pregnancy is important, as it can affect the baby (some symptoms can even lead to low birth weight) and the whole family. The article also discusses some pros and cons of antidepressants, and highlights a 60% success rate (in a 2003 study) treating mild to moderate depression with interpersonal therapy.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 15 May 2006
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Kiume, S. (2006). Pregnancy and Depression. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 25, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2006/05/15/pregnancy-and-depression/
