Prospective trial of L-tryptophan in maternity blues

Under double blind conditions 55 young, bottle feeding, multiparous women received L-tryptophan 3 g daily or placebo for ten days after delivery, and were also assessed daily for psychiatric symptoms. This treatment did not reduce 'maternity blues', but the mothers' blues scores correlated significantly with the scores for anxiety, depression and hysteria on the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire given in the eighth month of pregnancy.