Postpartum depression is a fairly underestimated condition and its causes are still a mystery. In general, it is considered a simple confusion of the mother when facing her new situation, but it is much more than that. It is a disease that involves multiple causes such as the capricious action of hormones, the genetic tendency of women to depression, and of course, a number of factors given by the environment of the recent mother.
A new study has also identified biological and brain factors that would be responsible for triggering the mechanism of postpartum depression in women.
According to research conducted with rats by scientists at the University of California the absence of a protein in the brain, considered essential to adapt to the fluctuations of sex hormones during pregnancy and the postpartum period, it would be key to unleash depression.
Remember that it is no small thing. Almost all women (two out of three) feel a slight depression at the great demand of the child. We ask ourselves "will I be able to organize now?", "Will I know how to take good care of you?", That is normal, but there are also cases of deep depression in which the mother comes to reject her own child and even very serious cases of psychosis puerperial
Postpartum depression was suspected to be related to fluctuation in estrogen and progesterone levels, but according to the new study, these hormones only release depression in women with a previous history.
They also identified a brain protein that fluctuates during pregnancy and postpartum. When creating rats lacking this protein, they saw that after giving birth to their young they were lethargic, avoided contact with their children and did not create nests, behaviors similar to those suffered by some women after giving birth.
The interesting thing about the study is that in addition to knowing more about the possible biological causes of postpartum depression, research could lead to the creation of an effective medication to treat the disease.
