Enzyme Linked to Postpartum Depression

Researchers at the Centre For Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto have identified an enzyme in new mothers that gobbles up the feel-good neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, apparently creating depression.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Meyer is a professor at the University of Toronto specializing in neurochemical imaging. Dr. Meyer says that after a woman gives birth, her level of estrogen drops drastically, decreasing by about 300 percent. This results in the “baby blues”, a normal condition that lasts three or four days. About thirteen percent of the mothers continue to be sad, irritable and have a change in appetite for weeks or moths, resulting in postpartum depression.

Writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Dr. Meyer and his researchers used positron emission tomography to assess the level of various enzymes in the brain. They reported that a brain enzyme MAO-A or monoamine oxidase A increased sharply when estrogen levels dropped a few days after delivery. New mothers had 43 percent more MAO-A than women who had not recently given birth.

Dr. Meyer plans clinical trials later this year on supplementing the new mothers’ diets with amino acids including tryptophan and tyrosine. Since the body creates neurotransmitters from these proteins, he hopes the additional protein will allow the mothers to produce neurotransmitters faster than the MAO-A can destroy them. It is yet to be determined if this treatment would be effective, or why it would be more effective than simply eating more protein.

Dr. James Swain of the University of Michigan believes that up to 40 percent of women may suffer postpartum depression, anxiety or panic attacks. He notes that any pregnancy woman with a history of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, poverty or other disorders is at risk.

The recent research was praised by Dr. Meir Steiner of McMaster University. Dr. Steiner notes that his research suggests that women with postpartum depression often improve when they have more sleep. Dr. Steiner suggests that a study in which new mothers are fed a client rich in protein and get enough sleep might prove effective.

Dr. James Paulson of Virginia Medical School  notes that the treatment may be effective for new fathers, as well. His recent research showed that about 14 percent of American men were likely to become depressed within one year after the birth of a child, compared to 8 percent of new fathers internationally.

By Joni Holderman, [email protected], contributing reporter for Mental Health News.