Prevention Of Postpartum Depression?
Numerous studies have shown that tryptophan deficiency leads to
transient mood changes in healthy subjects. The mood changes tend to be
of greater magnitude in patients with depression who, if they had
recovered previously, may relapse into depression
Such differential effects suggest that in depression, mechanisms other
than the reduction of brain serotonin levels play a role. Tryptophan
depletion also was found to be associated with increases in delta
amplitude of the electroencephalogram
These changes are similar to those typical
in depression. Smith et al. [34] showed that increasing levels of
depression after tryptophan depletion were associated with diminished
neural activity in the ventral anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal
cortex, and caudate nucleus regions. Klaassen et al.
Tryptophan supplementation has not shown mood-elevating effects in
healthy individuals or in patients with depression. Administration of
tryptophan has mostly sedative effects, which have led to its use as a
hypnotic. However, contaminated tryptophan, which caused an epidemic of
the eosinophilia myalgia syndrome in 1989 ended the marketing of
tryptophan in the United States.
Significant decreases of plasma polyunsaturated omega-3
fatty acids and/or increases of the omega-6/omega-3 plasma ratio in
and/or in red cell membranes of patients with major depression
which correlated inversely with depression severity and was not
attributable to reduced dietary intake have provided the rationale for
treating depressions with essential fatty acids.
It was administered during
the last 4 weeks of pregnancy, four of seven women experienced
postpartum depression, not different from the relapse rate expected in
untreated women. Considering the high rates of breast feeding among
current mothers and the benefits from nursing, the potential benefits
from fish oil for treating PPD merit additional investigation in better
designed placebo-controlled studies which need to include infant
assessments.