Pharmacotherapy of postpartum depression: current practice and future directions

Postpartum depression has well-documented consequences for the mother, child, family and society as a whole. Despite an increasing awareness of postpartum depression, it often remains unrecognised by clinicians and poorly understood by researchers. The current trend is undoubtedly a result of the complex nature of depressive disorders accentuated by difficulties with the current classification schemas. Systematic prospective data on the onset of depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period, as well as on the risk of relapse during these periods in women with previous histories of mood and anxiety disorders, are limited. This article reviews clinically relevant outcomes and current trends in the pharmacotherapy of postpartum depression from selected clinical trials. Critical issues of the neurobiology and phenomenology of postpartum depression are raised, and future directions of the pharmacological treatments of postpartum depression are examined.