THE ESSENTIAL
- After giving birth, many women experience uncontrolled sadness or crying that quickly subsides, this is called the baby blues.
- It is to be differentiated from postpartum depression which requires rapid and appropriate care to treat the mother.
10-15% of young mothers suffer from postpartum depression in France, according to a report by the First 1,000 Days Commission published in September 2020. The postpartum period is from childbirth until regarding six weeks following and at this time some women may experience depression, postpartum depression. Symptoms are usually intense fatigue, difficulty coping with stress, uncontrollable crying, irritability, self-devaluation, inability to appreciate parenting, dark thoughts, etc. These signals should alert because this disease can have serious consequences. Indeed, according to a report of the confidential national survey on maternal deaths (Encmm) for the period 2013-2015, suicide is the second leading cause of maternal death in France.
A disease still little known at the biological level
“We didn’t understand postpartum depression“, assures Jerry Guintivano, one of the authors of a study on the biological mechanisms of this disease which has just been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Much biological research focuses on genes and hormones, we are advanced (at the scientific level) on certain medications specific to postpartum depression, but it is important to broaden therapeutic pathways to treat it because not all manifestations of postpartum depression are the same”.
The Importance of B Cells
To better understand the biological mechanisms of this disease, the authors analyzed blood samples from 1,500 women, 482 of whom had postpartum depression. They also studied the RNA and DNA of these women, two factors that have never been taken into account in previous studies. So, they found that the difference between women with postpartum depression and those without was the B cells. white blood cells which play an important role in the immune system. They help the body to defend itself once morest infectious attacks by producing antibodies.
Hormonal changes in the immune system
“The immune system has a very important and delicate role during pregnancyexplains Jerry Guintivano, one of the authors. It must prevent infection with a cold, but also fine-tune so as not to identify the fetus as a foreign body and attack it. Then in the postpartum period all the hormones reset back to the pre-pregnancy period”. In other words, the immune system of women is put to the test when they are pregnant because it has to adapt, which involves major hormonal changes.
continue research
According to the conclusions of the researchers, during the postpartum period, the B lymphocytes of women suffering from depression and those who do not suffer from it would therefore be very different from those of patients who do not suffer from it. “This is really just the first step in a long series of research that now needs to be done.continues Jerry Guintivano. We still don’t know why B cells change. Do they reflect another change in the body that is caused by or causes postpartum depression? What is the reason for the change in B cells?”. The researchers hope to find the answer to these questions in future studies.
