For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pierre-Louis in for Rachel Feldman.
The birth of a child comes with a swirl of positive emotions.
Ah, joy, relief.
And yet for many birthing parents,
this postpartum period can also be accompanied by months or even years of debilitating depression.
For some of these parents, traditional anti-depressant meds like Sertaline,
better known as Zoloft, or Flexitine, aka Prozac, have provided some relief.
But many with postpartum depression have had little recourse.
That may be starting to change.
Science journalist Marla Broadfoot looked into a new drug that might better treat people for whom relief has remained elusive.
Marla joins us today to talk about her recent story in Scientific American.
Welcome Marla.
Thanks for having me.
At a very basic level, can you explain what postpartum depression is?
So at a basic level, it is a mood disturbance.
For a long time, it was lumped in with all kinds of depression, like garden variety depression,
but only recently have people begun to realize and researchers in particular realize that is its own entity.
And part of that has to do with hormones and the big fluctuations in hormones during pregnancy and the postpartum period and how the brain responds to that.
and how the brain responds in ways that maybe make you more vulnerable to mood disorders.
And developing a mood disorder or some sort of a mental health issue,