Postpartum Mood Disorders and Thyroid Autoimmunity

Because of the rapid emotional and endocrine changes in the postpartum period (1), postpar- tum mood disorders represent the most frequent form of maternal psychiatric morbidity (2–4). Postpartum mood disorders vary from a mild form of transient depression (maternity blues) to full- blown postpartum depression and severe psychosis (5, 6). Postpartum depression a ects 10–30% of women within 1 year a er delivery (7), and its risk is measurable already at 3 (8) or 7 days (2) postpartum. is risk predicts depression development in the following months (9, 10).
yroid function abnormalities exhibit comorbidity with various psychiatric disorders, including maternal depression. ere are one-tenth of a million studies on mood disorders, but fewer than 5,000 (3.9% of almost 125,000) concern mood disorders in the postpartum period. Similarly, studies on autoimmune thyroid disease are almost 20,000, but only 72 (3.7% of 19,360) concern postpartum mood disorders and thyroid disorders, and merely 5 focus on postpartum mood disorders and thyroid autoimmunity. us, we hope that our opinion will stimulate interest.