Postpartum depression is a real problem, not an invention of the imagination. Around 85 percent of new mothers have a problem known as "baby blues". These symptoms are usually quite mild and last for a few days to two weeks. It is believed to be caused by hormonal changes after the child is born.
There are three levels of postpartum depression. Baby blues is by far the most common and least dangerous. Symptoms include watery eyes, irritability, and anxiety. As a rule, this has no effect on your functionality.
Postpartum depression is the second stage and can affect your ability to function. The symptoms are the same, but they are stronger and last longer. 0.2% of these cases develop into postpartum psychosis.
It is the most dangerous form of postpartum depression. Delusions, hallucinations, rapid mood swings, sleep disorders and compulsive thoughts about the baby all contribute to the other symptoms. If left untreated, infant murder and / or suicide can occur.
Most often, depression can be treated with medication and / or herbs. However, breastfeeding mothers have a problem. Whatever mom takes, baby takes it. Treatment is particularly necessary in more severe cases. Treatment is not only necessary for the benefit of the mother. Children from untreated mothers lag behind cognitive performance, motor skills, and growth. They also tend to have lower IQs. Unfortunately, many women give up breastfeeding, which is not good for the baby.
There is an alternative, and if your doctor has not recommended it, take it with you. One type of antidepressant, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), has a very low toxicity rate. Breast-fed babies have been tested after the mother took this antidepressant and the values transferred to the baby are negligible.
Do Antidepressants Make You Drink More?
A number of studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s showed that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac led to a short-term reduction in alcohol consumption in men. Man and rat. This has sparked a lot of enthusiasm and intensive research into the effects of SSRIs on alcohol consumption, as some researchers hoped that SSRIs could be the key to curing alcoholism. However, research has shown that the effects of SSRIs on alcohol consumption are much less clear than originally stated. The short-term reduction in alcohol consumption among human alcoholics lasted no more than a week, and then the subjects drank more than ever. Research has also shown that SSRIs can actually worsen alcohol use among inexperienced drug users and women. However, there is one group that obviously benefits from SSRIs. Patients who have both alcohol addiction and severe depression disorder show a significant improvement in both depression and alcohol consumption when treated with SSRIs. In this article we will review the studies on SSRIs and alcohol use in these populations. In 1995 and 1996 Dr. Henry Kranzler and his colleagues conducted a study that found that SSRI Prozac may even worsen alcohol consumption behavior in early addicts without affecting addicts later on. Early-stage addicts are people who start drinking early and have more serious alcohol-related consequences. Late start addicts are those who start drinking much later and have less alcohol-related problems. The Kranzler group examined the effects of Prozac in 95 non-depressed patients who underwent speech therapy for alcohol addiction. Half of these subjects received Prozac and the other half received a placebo. When Kranzler and his colleagues analyzed the group as a whole, they found that there was no significant difference between the placebo group and the group that received Prozac.
Then, however, they divided the patients into two categories: late alcohol addicts and early alcohol addicts. When the data were re-analyzed using these two categories, a very surprising result was achieved that completely contradicted expectations. They found that the early alcohol addicts who received Prozac were significantly worse than the group who received the placebo. There was no significant difference between the late start addicts who received Prozac and those who received placebo. Kranzler's study strongly suggests that Prozac could actually worsen alcohol consumption in early drinkers who do not receive talk therapy due to their alcohol addiction. There is only one person left to make the crucial experience necessary to verify this very likely conclusion. In 1995, Dr. Claudio Naranjo and his colleagues saw the effect of SSRI Celexa on 62 non-depressed problem drinkers who were taught moderate drinking strategies. 56% of the subjects were men and 44% women. Half of the subjects received Celexa and the other half a placebo. The Naranjo group found that women who received Celexa were much worse than women who received a placebo to reduce their alcohol consumption. The men did the same whether they received Celexa or the placebo. This suggests that Celexa can actually INCREASE the alcohol consumption of problem drinkers who do not receive moderation training or any other form of speech therapy. All that is needed to confirm this is an experiment with drinkers who receive Celexa but do not receive speech therapy. The patients in the studies we've discussed so far had no severe depression. In 1997, Dr. Jack Cornelius MD and his colleagues looked at the effects of SSRI Prozac in 51 patients with severe depression and severe alcohol addiction. The subjects were 51% men and 49% women. All patients received speech therapy because of their alcohol addiction. In addition to speech therapy, 25 patients received Prozac and 26 received a placebo. In this study, patients who received Prozac showed a significantly greater improvement in both depression and outcomes than those who received placebo. Together with the other studies, this leads to the conclusion that SSRIs can reduce alcohol consumption in people with severe depression, but not in other groups. In 2007, Dr. Kathryn Graham PhD and her colleagues reported the results of a large telephone survey of 14,063 people in Canada who asked about their alcohol and antidepressant consumption. This survey found that depressed men who took antidepressants drank less alcohol on average than depressed men who did not take antidepressants. Depressed women who took antidepressants, however, drank at least as much as depressed women who did not take antidepressants, if not more.
Like the Naranjo study, this study suggests that antidepressants affect men's drinking behavior differently than women's drinking behavior. Since the respondents in this study were not specifically asked whether they were taking an SSRI or another antidepressant like a tricyclic, we need to be careful what we can conclude from it. If the data were limited to SSRIs, the researchers may have seen an increase in alcohol consumption among women taking the drug. Research remains to confirm whether this is actually the case. Previous studies seem to suggest that SSRIs lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption only in men with severe depression. SSRIs do not appear to affect most others' alcohol consumption in one way or another. However, studies also suggest that SSRIs can lead to an increase in alcohol consumption in some people, especially women and inexperienced drug users.
For this reason, we would like to suggest that people become proactive consumers of health care. If you drink alcohol and are taking antidepressants and the antidepressants seem to be causing you to increase your alcohol consumption or to drink it dangerously, you should talk to your doctor about it. You may need to switch to another type of antidepressant or stop taking antidepressants altogether. Or you may find it best to stop drinking. LITERATURE: Cornelius JR., Salloum IM., Ehler JG., Jarrett PJ., Dr. Cornelius, Perel JM., Thase ME., Black A. (1997). Fluoxetine in depressed alcoholics: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 700-5, Graham, K, Massak, A. (2007). Alcohol consumption and use of antidepressants. CMAJ. 176 (5), 633-7. Kranzler HR, Burleson J., Korner P., Del Boca FK, Bohn MJ, Brown J., Liebowitz N. (1995). A placebo-controlled study with fluoxetine in addition to preventing relapse in alcoholics. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 391-397. Kranzler HR, Burleson JA, Brown J., Babor TF. (1996). Fluoxetine therapy appears to reduce the beneficial effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy in type B alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 20, 1534-41, Naranjo CA, Bremner KE, Lanctot KL. (1995). Effects of citalopram and a short psychosocial intervention on alcohol consumption, addiction and problems. Addiction, 90, 87-8. 99th
Reviewed By Dr Andrew Charlton Has 62 publications, the author of 3 patents for inventions, 2 teaching aids on medical and pharmaceutical education of Australian universities for use in the educational process in medical universities.
Next Articles:
Where can I buy generic hair loss medication? - I have a very serious problem. I have had hair loss for a few years and have only recently decided to see a doctor to find out if there is a medical reason. The doctor diagnosed androgenic alopecia, which he also calls male baldness. It means I'm going bald! Not a very calming thought.
Which ED drug is best for impotence (a form of erectile dysfunction)? - In this article, we'll cover some of the basics about impotence and the role of ED drugs in the treatment of impotence. Among the three main erectile dysfunction drugs, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, we will consider Viagra for Levitra.