BMJ 1998;316:1884-1886 ( 20 June )

Clinical review

Fortnightly review

Postnatal depression

Peter J Cooper, professor,  Lynne Murray, professor. 

Winnicott Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AL

Correspondence to: Professor Cooper P.J.Cooper@reading.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

There has been considerable recent clinical and research interest in postpartum depression. This has been largely provoked by the accumulating evidence that postnatal depression is associated with disturbances in child cognitive and emotional development.¹ This evidence, which is reviewed below, has renewed concern about the epidemiology of postnatal depression, its aetiology, methods of prediction and detection, and the most appropriate form of management.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

	Methods

This article is based on a review of the recent research concerned with the impact of postnatal depression on child development, and the epidemiology, prediction, detection and management of the disorder. Authoritative recent reviews are cited as well as the most impressive research papers. To supplement our immediate knowledge of the literature we performed literature searches with Medline and PsychLit (1980-97) using the relevant key words ("postnatal/postpartum depression" in conjunction with "infant/child development/outcome, epidemiology, aetiology, prediction, detection and treatment").

	Impact on parenting and child outcome

There have been several recent prospective studies of . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Don't exclude biology.

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