Studies find that postnatal depression is very different to other mood disorders

Trine Jensen-Burke

Postnatal, or postpartum, depression affects as many as one in five new mothers – meaning it is an issue that will touch a vast number of us.

As well as these figures what we do know, is that the dark numbers are also huge, meaning postnatal depression is a condition that is still woefully under-recognised – and under researched – worldwide.

“10 to 20 percent of our mums are mentally ill, but we know virtually nothing about how these mental illnesses change the maternal brain,” Dr. Jodi Pawluski, a behavioural neuroscientist at the University of Rennes in France, explains to The Huffington Post. “What that means is that ten to 20 percent of our kids have mums that are for a period mentally ill. … This affects us all.”

And now a study has shed light on the fact that while postpartum blues may seem similar to depression and anxiety as other, non postpartum people, experience them, there are in fact some pretty distinct differences.

According to new research published in the journal Trends in Neuroscience, postpartum mood disorders involve some fundamentally different brain activities compared to those occurring in someone who haven’t just given birth.

As part of their study, Pawluski and her team analysed brain scans of mothers with post-partum depression and anxiety, comparing them with brain scans of individuals with major depressive disorder. And what they found was that what goes on in the brain of someone who has just given birth varies greatly from depression and anxiety in people who did not recently give birth.

“Motherhood really can change the mother, which is something we often overlook,” Pawluski added in a statement. “And we forget about examining the neurobiology of maternal mental health and maternal mental illness, particularly anxiety.”

Pawluski thinks that by understanding how postpartum depression happens, better help and earlier intervention can be offered to those suffering.

With greater awareness and understanding, rolling back the stigma of post-partum depression becomes possible and many new mothers will be able to speak openly and seek treatment sooner.

“I was fortunate and I have, overall, loved being a parent,” Pawluski said. “I want all moms to experience that, and I want there to be ways we can make that possible.”