Tuesday 4 October 2022 09:00 PM Simple blood test can diagnose pregnant women with postnatal depression BEFORE ... trends now
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Pregnant women could be diagnosed with postnatal depression before they have even given birth thanks to a new discovery by scientists.
Around one in seven new mothers are diagnosed with postnatal depression within a year of giving birth in the US, while in the UK it is around one in 10.
The condition is defined by periods of sadness, loneliness and inability to care for their newborns that last longer than two weeks.
But researchers believe they have found a way to diagnose postnatal depression while a woman is still pregnant – using a simple blood test.
A team from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore collected blood samples from 42 pregnant women.
They looked closely at the system that cells use to communicate with each other, including molecules called messenger RNA (mRNA).
Around one in seven new mothers is diagnosed with postnatal depression within a year of giving birth in the US, while in the UK it is around one in 10 (file)
During pregnancy, this communication system ramps up to address needs for embryo implantation and growth.
The team measured the levels of thousands of different mRNA molecules during the second and third trimester of pregnancy, as well as up to six months after giving birth.
Analysis revealed the mRNA communication levels during pregnancy and the postnatal period were ‘extensively altered’ in the women who developed postnatal depression.
The findings, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, showed that in women who did develop postnatal depression, levels of some mRNA molecules were higher while some were lower than women who did not develop the condition.
The vast majority of these changes occurred during the pregnancy rather than after the
