In a moment of procrastinating last week, I found myself reading A Cup of Jo, a lifestyle blog written by Joanna Goddard, out of NYC. While the blog generally covers design, food, and fashion, on February 20, Goddard wrote about her experience with depression after weaning her young son. Goddard’s candid description of her personal experience with depression inspired over 700 people to respond to her post.
Goddard and others site hormonal changes including a
decrease in prolactin and oxytocin as contributing to depression after weaning.
While postpartum depression,
which according to the APA affects as many as 1 in 7 women, has received
significant attention in the field, much less has been given to depression
following weaning. Goddard
describes her own difficulty finding information about it, and after a PsycINFO
search it seems that there is a dearth of research on this topic in the field. It is noteworthy that much of the
information about depression after weaning that is available online seems to
come from parenting websites and blogs and not from psychological or
psychiatric sources.
According to the DSM-IV-TR, a postpartum onset specifier for
a mood episode may be used when the depression occurs within 4 weeks of giving
birth. But for women who
experience depression that may be related to weaning months or more postpartum,
health care providers may not be taking this crucial change into account in their
diagnosis and treatment planning.
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