Postpartum depression (PD) is a serious disorder that affects 5-15% of all women after childbirth. Untreated, the disease can have serious consequences for mother and child in both the short and long term. Very little is known about the specific causes of PD in women without a previous mental illness. However, there is some evidence that reproductive hormones, possibly interacting with certain genes, play an important role in the development of the disease in these women.
In collaboration with the National Serum Institute, the PhD project "Omics Profiling of Women with Postpartum Depression" is performed. The project, which has just begun to recruit patients, involves identifying biomarkers using metabolic profiling, metabolomics, in a large number of women with postpartum Depression compared to women, who have born, but have not developed postpartum Depression. The biomarkers found are then tested in the national birth cohort, where blood samples from approx. 100,000 women have been collected during their pregnancy and stored in a biobank.
Purpose: To test whether you can find biomarkers already during pregnancy, which can predict later development of postpartum Depression. This will be of great importance because a large proportion of women with postpartum Depression are not identified and are not getting any help. The prevention perspective is thus very large.
Results and conclusion: If the test is successful, it will mean that you will be able to predict using a blood and urine sample whether pregnant women are at risk of developing postpartum depression. This allows you to start prevention much earlier, which will be of great importance to the woman, her partner and the small child.
Foundations that supports the project:
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