Introduction: The differentiation between postnatal depression and other types of depression is often unclear, but there are treatment issues in nursing mothers that do not apply in other situations. Overall, the prevalence of depression in postpartum women is the same as the prevalence in women generally, at about 12-13%. Suicide is a major cause of maternal mortality in resource-rich countries, but rates are lower in women postpartum than in women who have not had a baby.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of drug treatments, and of non-drug treatments, for postnatal depression? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to May 2008 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found 34 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: group cognitive behavioural therapy, hormones, individual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), infant massage by mother, interpersonal psychotherapy, light therapy, mother-infant interaction coaching, non-directive counselling, other antidepressants, physical exercise, psychodynamic therapy, psychoeducation with partner, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), St John's Wort, telephone-based peer support.