The study states that women with postpartum depression experienced brain changes during pregnancy

Postpartum depression affects one in seven women who give birth, but little is known about what is happening in the brains of pregnant women who experience it. AND New study It begins to shed some featherlight.

Scientists scanned the brains of dozens of women within a few weeks before and after delivery and found that two areas of the brain involved in the processing and control of emotions increased in women who developed the symptoms of postpartum depression.

The results, published on Wednesday in the science Advances magazine, are some of the first evidence that postpartum depression is associated with brain changes during pregnancy.

Scientists have found that women with symptoms of depression in the first month after delivery also increased the volume of the almond body, the area of ​​the brain, which plays a key role in emotional processing. Women who assessed the experience of childbirth as tough or stressful – perception, which is often associated with postpartum depression – also showed an boost in the volume of the hippocampus, the area of ​​the brain that helps to regulate emotions.

“This is really the first step in an attempt to understand how the brain changes in people who have the normal course of pregnancy, and then those who experience perinatal depression, and what we can do about it,” said Dr. Sheila Shanmugan, an assistant professor of psychiatry, gynecology and radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Huge take -out concerns how these really deep brain changes are during pregnancy and how we can now see it in depression circuits,” she said.

The study was conducted in Madrid by a team that led to the influence of pregnancy on the brain. This is part of a growing research group, which showed that some brain networks, especially those involved in social and emotional processing, shrink during pregnancy, probably undergoing a tuning process in preparation for parenting. Such changes correspond to the rapid hormones of pregnancy, especially estrogen, and some of the last at least two years after delivery, Scientists found.

The recent study seems to be the first to scan and compares the brain areas during pregnancy and after delivery, and associate changes with postpartum depression, said Elseline Hoekzema, a neurobiologist who manages pregnancy and brain laboratory at the Amsterdam University Medical Center and was not involved in the study.

The authors of the study and other researchers found that it was not clear whether the increased volume in the almond body and hippocampus caused depressive symptoms, and the perception of stress during delivery or brain changes occurred in response to symptoms and stressors. From the brain scanning it was also unclear why some women seemed more exposed to these symptoms than others.

“It may happen that people whose almond body is more susceptible to changes is also exposed to the risk of suffering of postpartum depression,” said the elderly examination of the study, Susana Carmona, a neuronauna, who runs a neuromaterial laboratory at the Instituto de Investigación sanitiarion Gregorio Marañón in Madrid. “It can also be the opposite,” she said – “Somehow these symptoms of depression cause an boost in the volume of the tonsil.”

Scientists studied 88 pregnant women who had not had previously born and did not have previous stories of depression or other neuropsychiatric conditions. In the case of a control group, they also looked at 30 women who were not pregnant. Pregnant women underwent brain scanning during the third trimester and about a month after delivery.

Women have completed standard questionnaires to assess whether they had symptoms of postpartum depression. Dr. Carmon said that after delivery 15 women showed moderate symptoms of depression, and another 13 showed symptoms of depression to justify the search for medical assistance.

Women also completed the questionnaires regarding whether they perceived their experience of childbirth as tough. Previous studies have shown that “negative experience of childbirth is associated with an boost in the results of depression,” said Dr. Carmona. She said that tough birth experiences were not necessarily medically tough deliveries, but uncomplicated supplies that women perceived as stressful because of factors such as naughty hospital staff.

Laura Pritschet, a post -axian scientist in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study, called the results “really fascinating”, adding that they indicate that they indicate further research “trying to find out which areas of the brain change the most in connection with various results after delivery, such as mood, anxiety, depression.”

Dr. Pritschet who He wrote an article With dr. Shanmugan in the same issue of the magazine, which is in favor of research in order to determine individualized brain signatures of the perinatal depression, it was found that the results of the recent test assist to identify the road map in order to finally improve the prediction, diagnosis and treatment of depression after delivery.

“If we routinely show that some areas of the brain are involved, what are we doing? How can we intervene early? “She said. “What is the normal change? Why can this area be sensitive? Many compelling questions that should be asked next. “