Sports Psychiatry: Exercise and postpartum depression

Abstract

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common psychiatric disorder in the peripartum period affecting approximately 8% of European women without prior psychiatric history [1] and even more with pre-existing depressive disorders. Up to 70% of new mothers develop mild depressive symptoms called “baby-blues” which include weepiness, sadness and mood lability. Those symptoms usually peak between 2 and 5 days post-delivery and abate spontaneously within days up to 2 weeks [2]. In contrast to “baby blues” postpartum depression can have a serious impact on functioning and even lead to suicidality rendering it highly important to detect the disorder as early as possible. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) [3] is widely used to screen for postpartum depression and should be applied to all new mothers who develop depressive symptoms such as loss of interest, hopelessness and depressive feelings. Several risk factors for postpartum depression have been identified: Prenatal depression poses the highest risk, followed by low self-esteem, childcare stress, prenatal anxiety, life stress and lack of social support [4]. Postpartum depression is a treatable condition, however, it has to be distinguished from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, which require different treatment strategies [2].