Postpartum depression: bipolar or unipolar? Analysis of 434 Polish postpartum women

• Autor(a) principal: Jaeschke,Rafał R.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Dudek,Dominika, Topór-Mądry,Roman, Drozdowicz,Katarzyna, Datka,Wojciech, Siwek,Marcin, Rybakowski,Janusz
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry (São Paulo. 1999. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462017000200154
• topic: Postpartum depression; bipolarity; personality; EPDS; MDQ

Objective: To assess the prevalence of soft bipolar features in a sample of women with postpartum depressive symptoms, as well as to compare the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics of subjects with bipolar or unipolar postpartum depressive symptomatology. Methods: Four hundred and thirty-four participants were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), while the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) was used to screen for bipolarity features. Results: Of the 434 participants, 66 (15.2%) scored ≥ 13 points on the EPDS, thus fulfilling the screening criteria, and 103 scored ≥ 7 points on the MDQ. In comparison with non-depressed subjects, the women who scored positively on the EPDS were significantly more likely to exhibit symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders (38 vs. 21%; chi-square test, p = 0.015). Women with bipolar PPD symptomatology were significantly younger than those exhibiting unipolar PPD symptoms (31.0±4.8 years vs. 28.5±4.1 years; t-test, p = 0.03). The groups did not differ in terms of obstetric characteristics. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that patients with PPD symptomatology may be more likely to exhibit soft bipolarity features as compared with non-depressed women.