Fatigue Linked to Depression in Postpartum Women

April 7, 2006

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http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/41/7/26?etoc

Fatigue Linked to Depression In Postpartum Women David Milne

A simple screening test may help head off the development of depression among postpartum mothers by ensuring they get early help.

An estimated 12 percent of women develop major depression within a year of giving birth, and about 19 percent get minor forms of the illness. Postpartum depression disrupts maternal-infant bonding and retards infant behavioral and cognitive development. Yet many at-risk mothers go undiagnosed until the disease is well established.

Now a simple screening test has been used to identify mothers at risk for postpartum depression. In a small prospective study, 91 percent of mothers who scored 6 or above on the Modified Fatigue Symptom Checklist 14 days postpartum were found to be at increased risk of postpartum depression.

"We found that fatigue and not a history of stress or depression is the best indicator of which women will go on to develop postpartum depression," the lead author of the study told Psychiatric News. She is Elizabeth Corwin, Ph.D., an associate professor of nursing at Ohio State University.

A report of her study appears in the September/October 2005 Journal of Obstetric, Gynecological, and Neonatal Nursing.

Corwin's group gave 31 women between 36 and 38 weeks gestation questionnaires on fatigue, stress, and both symptoms and history of depression; they also measured the women's cortisol levels. This procedure was repeated at one, two, and four weeks after delivery. All women had uneventful vaginal deliveries.

By the end of the fourth week, 11 of the 31 women were reported to have symptoms of depression. Seven had a family history of depression, four of whom also had a personal history of depression.

The most significant result was that 10 of the 11 women (91 percent) who showed symptoms of postpartum depression during the fourth and final week of the study had also reported higher-than-normal levels of fatigue two weeks earlier. Only one of the 11 women who went on to demonstrate symptoms of depression had not reported excessive fatigue at that visit.

Full Text at Psychiatric Newshttp://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/41/7/26?etoc

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