Sorry, Sertraline. We have a new first-line approach to postpartum depression.

Welcome to the Carlite Psychiatry Podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003.

I'm Chris Akin, the editor-in-chief of the Carlisat Psychiatry Report.

And I'm Kelly Newsom, a psychiatric MP and a dedicated reader of every issue.

We began this series on timing treatment with an element that entered the universe in the first

few minutes of the Big Bang, lithium. And we're going to end it with a different kind of beginning.

Childbirth.

Postpartum depression affects one in eight mothers.

And early intervention is critical here, not just for the mother, but for the infant and the family.

The mother's eyes are the first thing a baby can see at birth, followed later by her face. The baby's vision is limited in those early days. Everything is blurry, it's mostly in black and white, and about

the only thing they can make out are two black dots about eight to 12 inches away, in other

words, the mother's eyes. And it's through that interaction with their mother that development takes place from attachment to cognition.

Postpartum depression takes a measurable toll on infant health, causing detrimental delays in language, learning, intelligence, self-control and attachment.

Anxiety, depression, ADHD, sleep and eating problems are all linked to it.

It makes intuitive sense that these problems are bigger, the longer the depression goes on.

But that's not so easy to study.

You can't exactly randomize it.

And chronic depressions tend to be more severe, which complicates the association.

A few studies have compared children of mothers with similar severity of depression but with

different durations, and they confirm the idea that longer durations worsen the outcomes.

Let's pause for a preview of the CME quiz for this episode.

Earn CME for each episode through the link in the show notes.

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