Postpartum depression

Depression following childbirth (postpartum depression) is a common psychiatric illness of women, postpartum. We review Japanese and English literature on postpartum depression. Problems with definition, study design and validity of the diagnosis prevented comprehensive understanding whether postpartum depression is a distinct subtype of endogenous depression. In general, postpartum depression seems to be the same illness as depression at other times in life. The biological and psycho-social pathogenetic factors, unique to the puerperal period, are not yet known. Clinicians caring for women and infants should learn to screen their patients for this multifactorial (genetic, temperamental, and environmental) disorder, and try to integrate a multidisciplinary (pharmaco-, psycho-, socio-, familial) approach.