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Vol 92, No 2 (2021)
Guidelines / Expert consensus
Published online: 2020-12-09

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Recommendations for the prevention and treatment of postpartum depression

Monika Dominiak1, Anna Z. Antosik-Wojcinska2, Marta Baron3, Pawel Mierzejewski1, Lukasz Swiecicki3
DOI: 10.5603/GP.a2020.0141
Pubmed: 33448014
Ginekol Pol 2021;92(2):153-164.

Abstract

Epidemiological data clearly indicate that depression is becoming an increasingly important health and social problem
today. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression currently affects 350 million people worldwide and
is considered the second most common cause of disability in Europe after ischemic heart disease. It is estimated that this
health problem may affect as many as five million people in Poland. The gap between the reported number of patients
treated and the prevalence of depression, highlights the scale of unmet needs. With the limited availability of specialists
in psychiatric care, the most appropriate measures seem to be those aimed at increasing the competence of doctors of
other specialties in the diagnosis and treatment of depression. Early detection and treatment results in faster remission,
reduces relapses and mortality.
The recommendations concerning prevention of depression were commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Health as a part of
the Depression Prevention Program for 2016–2020. The Program has developed recommendations addressed to specialists
in various fields of medicine, other than psychiatry, focusing on three risk groups: children and adolescents, women in the
perinatal period and the elderly. These recommendations focus on the management of suspected postpartum depression
and provide specific guidelines for medical staff having contact with pregnant and postpartum women (gynecologists,
midwives, pediatricians).

Keywords: postpartum depressionpostnatal depressionperinatal depressionprevention of depressionrecommendation

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