Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) is an umbrella term for mental health conditions that may arise during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum due to various factors that may be tied to ongoing psychological, biological, and even social shifts. These may include:
• major depressive disorder (MDD)
• generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• panic disorder (PD)
Deligiannidis explained there are shared biological mechanisms that may lead to the development of clinical depression in the general population and postpartum people.
But she noted that women who develop peripartum depression — the period before, during, and immediately after childbirth — may experience “greater brain sensitivity to stress” as hormones fluctuate due to impaired neuroactive steroid functioning.
“This was the rationale for the research into neuroactive steroid treatments for peripartum depression,” she said.