European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

DETERMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LEVEL OF OXYTOCIN IN HUMAN BLOOD AND POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION (PPD) IN PREGNANT WOMEN REFERRING TO GOVERNMENTAL HOSPITALS AFFILIATED TO AHWAZ UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES IN 2015

Akram Ahangarpour, Rahil Mohammadian*, Mahin Najafian and Bahman Dashtbozorgi

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects approximately 19% of women. According to the DSM-5™ Diagnostic Criteria, postpartum depression is a component of major depressive disorder that is diagnosed during pregnancy or during the 4 weeks postpartum. Method: 85 pregnant women with 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy were randomly selected. 46 patients were entered into the study using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)1, and diagnosing the absence of postpartum depression. Blood samples were collected before delivery and transferred to the laboratory and centrifuged, and the plasma was stored in the freezer. Again, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was distributed among the same women, during the 2nd to 6th week after delivery and oxytocin plasma concentration was measured by the kit (ZellBio GmbH, Germany) and ELISA Microplate Reader. Results: According to the results of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), 26 of the participants were healthy and 20 of them were depressed. No significant difference was observed between the concentration of oxytocin before delivery in two groups of healthy and depressed. Plasma oxytocin concentration was significantly increased in comparison with prepartum, but its level in the depressed group was significantly lower than the healthy group. Conclusion: In some women, depression may develop after delivery, called postpartum depression, which can be directly related to the lack of increasing oxytocin plasma levels sufficiently after delivery.

Keywords: Postpartum depression, oxytocin, Edinburgh test.