Depression Learning

Is Postpartum Depression related to Postpartum Psychosis?

Most people have heard of postpartum depression, but there is another type of postpartum mental illness that is much more serious, which is called postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis is not related to postpartum depression. Postpartum psychosis is a serious mental illness that can manifest quickly. Before talking about postpartum psychosis, let’s identify what postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis is.

Postpartum Depression

The last week of pregnancy, the mom-to-be is usually feeling high with anticipation. There may be some doubt, and a little anxiety about the delivery. All mom’s worry that something might go wrong, but always hope and expect the best. Postpartum depression is common among mothers from 6 to 12 weeks after delivery. It’s normally not a serious problem, if it is just the “new baby blues.”

If you have ever had a baby, you probably had the blues a short while after delivering your newborn into the world. You might ask, what causes postpartum depression. The cause of postpartum depression isn’t well understood, but it is thought it may be caused by the hormonal changes within the mom. Your hormone levels are coming back down to normal after your delivery. Prior to the birth, you had pregnancy hormones infiltrating your body, and you probably felt energized. You had to feel somewhat energized to carry all the extra weight associated with pregnancy. When those hormones recede, you begin to feel overwhelmed with caring for your baby. Most new moms don’t get much time to sleep, and that wears a little thin on mom’s nerves also. Family support and lots of help and understanding can go a long way to helping mom feel better.

The symptoms of postpartum depression are:

• Changes in appetite, energy, sleep and concentration
• Feelings of guilt, helplessness, worthlessness, and thoughts of suicide
• Being in a depressed mood consistently
• Loss of interest in the things that once gave pleasure
• Changes in psychomotor activity – pacing, rocking, or not wanting to get out of bed
• Feeling inadequate to be a mother
• Thoughts of harming the baby

New moms who have bipolar depression or schizoaffective disorder are more likely to develop postpartum psychosis than postpartum depression. Postpartum psychosis begins in the same postpartum period that postpartum depression does, except that postpartum psychosis has sudden onset, where postpartum depression has more of a gradual onset.

Postpartum psychosis?

If you have bipolar depression or schizoaffective psychosis, you are twice as likely to develop postpartum psychosis as someone who doesn’t have either of these mental illnesses. If you aren’t bipolar, but there is bipolar depression in your family history, for instance, your mother or grandmother has/had bipolar depression you may also be at risk for postpartum psychosis. If you have ever had postpartum psychosis in a previous pregnancy, you are also at risk of developing the disorder again. This is a serious mental illness and needs to be treated immediately.

The symptoms of postpartum depression are:

• Mood swings from dark depression, anger, and/or belligerence
• Disoriented to time, place, or situation
• Having periods of dissociation or depersonalization
• Displaying bizarre behavior
• Having auditory hallucinations
• Paranoia
• Delusional thinking, such as: her baby is possessed by the devil, their baby is evil
• If mothers are aware they are thinking irrationally they may believe it is because they are inadequate to be mothers

Mothers who display symptoms of postpartum psychosis or postpartum depression need to seek help immediately. The moms, and their families may not know the difference between the two disorders, but both disorders should be taken seriously, so that nothing happens to the babies. All too often, moms do harm and even kill their babies because they have irrational thoughts concerning their infants.

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