[The epidemiology and pathogenesis of postpartum depression]

Mood disorders--maternity blues, depression and bipolar disorders with psychotic features--are common and increased in rate during the postpartum period as compared to the non-postpartum period. Several authors showed a frequent recurrence of postpartum depression in women with a history of postpartum depression. Bloch, et al: (2000) showed that 5 of 8 women(62.5%) with a history of postpartum depression and none of the 8 control women developed significant mood symptoms during the withdrawal from high serum levels of progesterone and estradiol. These findings indicate that a history of postpartum depression produces hypersensitivity or reverse tolerance to subsequent exposure to an acute decrease of gonadal steroids at least for a subgroup of women with a past postpartum depression.