Postpartum Thyroid Measures and Depressive Symptomology: A Pilot Study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2008

Abstract

CONTEXT: While correlations have been demonstrated between postpartum depression and psychosocial and circumstantial risk factors, some evidence exists for a similar relationship between postpartum depression and thyroid measures.

OBJECTIVE: To search at 4 weeks postpartum for correlations of numerical scores on a postnatal depression screening tool and thyroid measures.

METHODS: Subjects took the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) prenatally and at 4 weeks postpartum. Participants were also given blood tests for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine4, thyroid peroxidase, and thyroglobulin at the same testing intervals.

RESULTS: Fifty-one subjects aged 18 years or older were recruited. Subjects with higher serum TSH at 4 weeks postpartum tended to have higher EPDS scores. Similarly, the 7 subjects (13.7%) with positive postnatal thyroid antibody tests were more likely than their counterparts to have higher EPDS scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Presence of thyroid autoantibodies or higher TSH levels during the postpartum period may be related to depressive symptoms or dysphoric mood, even when clinical depression is not present. Either or both of these associations may contribute, along with other physiologic and psychosocial risk factors, to postpartum depression. (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT00565032).

Publication Title

The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

Volume

108

Issue

9

First Page

503

Last Page

507

PubMed ID

18806079

Comments

This article was published in Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Volume 108, Issue 9, September 2008, Pages 503-7.

The published version is available at http://www.jaoa.org/content/108/9/503.long

Copyright © 2008 by the American Osteopathic Association

This document is currently not available here.

COinS