Postpartum Depression Pill Gives Positive Outcomes

A group of medical researchers from Sage Therapeutics and Biogen, under the direction of Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis, at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York, have discovered promising results from a new medication intended to treat the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. In their research, which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the team ran a phase III clinical trial with postpartum women.

A common mood illness that affects women is postpartum depression. Extreme exhaustion, depression, a loss of interest or focus, and suicidal thoughts are just a few of its symptoms. According to earlier studies, as many as one in seven women may have postpartum depression. There is now only one medicine available, Zulresso, which must be given intravenously over the course of three days while requiring a hospital stay, an unfeasible circumstance for the majority of new mothers.

In this new initiative, the research team created a medication called Zuranolone that can be taken orally for a number of days in a row—usually 15, in this case. It should be noted that the medication is a steroid rather than an antidepressant and that it reduces symptoms by regulating the firing of neurons in networks that are important in mood and behavior. The patient stops taking them after two weeks, and during the following few weeks, they visit their doctor.

The researchers enlisted 170 new mothers who had been previously identified as suffering from severe postpartum depression to examine the medication’s efficacy. The medicine was administered to half of the volunteers, and a placebo to the other half.

All the trial participants’ symptoms improved, but only those who took the medication reported significant improvements, and only those women continued to experience improvements for four to six weeks.

Due to various forms of treatment they got, such as receiving a break from child care, it is likely that the symptoms of the women who received a placebo improved while they were participating in the study. The FDA is examining the medication and will make a decision by August 5 on whether to approve it or not.

Source Link