Postpartum depression and anxiety distinct from other mood disorders, brain studies suggest
"Motherhood really can change the mother, which is something we often overlook. And we forget about examining the neurobiology of maternal mental health and maternal mental illness , particularly anxiety," says behavioral neuroscientist Jodi Pawluski of University of Rennes 1 in France, who co-authored the paper with Joseph Lonstein of Michigan State University and Alison Fleming of the University of Toronto at Mississauga. Overall, fMRI studies show that neural activity in women with PPD compared to people with major depression who had not given birth involves distinct patterns for new mothers with PPD. For instance, the amygdala is usually hyperactive in anxious and depressed people, but for the women with PPD, the amygdala can actually be less activated. PPD is now listed as "perinatal depression," a subset of major depression, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the text which sets industry standards for diagnosing mental ...