Causes and treatment of postpartum psychosis

Postpartum psychosis or puerperal psychosis is a psychiatric disorder that affects some women after about 2 or 3 weeks of delivery.

This disease causes signs and symptoms such as mental confusion, nervousness, excessive crying, as well as delusions and visions, and treatment must be done in a psychiatric hospital, with supervision and use of drugs to control these symptoms.

It is usually caused due to hormonal changes that women experience during this period, but it is also very influenced by mixed feelings due to changes with the arrival of the child, which can cause sadness and postpartum depression.

How the treatment is done

The treatment for postpartum psychosis is done by the psychiatrist, with medications according to the symptoms of each woman, which may be with antidepressants, such as amitriptyline, or anticonvulsants, such as carbamazepine. In some cases, it may be necessary to perform electroshocks, which is electroconvulsive therapy, and psychotherapy can help women who have psychosis associated with postpartum depression. Learn more about what postpartum depression is.

Generally, it is necessary for the woman to be hospitalized in the first days, until she improves, so that there is no risk to her health and that of the baby, but it is important that contact is maintained, with supervised visits, so that the bond is not lost with the baby. Family support, whether with help with child care or emotional support, is essential to help in the recovery from this disease, and psychotherapy is also important to help women understand the moment.

With the treatment, the woman can be cured and return to life as a baby and the family, however, if the treatment is not carried out soon, it is possible that she will have increasingly worse symptoms, to the point of totally losing consciousness of reality, and may put your life and the baby's life at risk.

What causes

The moment of the child's arrival marks a period of many changes, in which feelings such as love, fear, insecurity, happiness and sadness are mixed. This large amount of feelings, associated with changes in hormones and the woman's body in this period, are important factors that trigger an outbreak of psychosis.

Thus, any woman can suffer from postpartum psychosis, although there is a greater risk in some women who worsen from postpartum depression, who already had a previous history of depression and bipolar disorder, or who experience conflicts in personal or family life, as difficulties in professional, economic life, and even because they had an unplanned pregnancy.

What differentiates psychosis from postpartum depression

Postpartum depression usually occurs in the first month of the child's birth, and consists of feelings such as sadness, melancholy, easy crying, discouragement, sleep disorders and appetite. In cases of depression, it is difficult for a woman to do daily tasks and bond with her baby.

In psychosis, these symptoms can also arise, as they can develop from depression, but, in addition, the woman starts to have very incoherent thoughts, feelings of persecution, changes in mood and agitation, besides being able to have visions or hear voices. Postpartum psychosis increases the mother's risk of committing infanticide, because the mother develops irrational thoughts, believing that the baby will have a worse fate than death.

Thus, in psychosis, women are left out of reality, while in depression, despite their symptoms, they are aware of what is happening around them.

Main symptoms

Psychosis usually appears in the first month after delivery, but it can also take longer to show signs. It can cause symptoms such as:

• Restlessness or agitation; Feeling of intense weakness and inability to move; Crying and emotional lack of control; Distrust; Mental confusion; Saying meaningless things; Being obsessed with someone or something; Viewing figures or hearing voices.

In addition, the mother may have distorted feelings about reality and the baby, ranging from love, indifference, confusion, anger, distrust and fear, and, in very serious cases, may even endanger the child's life.

These symptoms may appear suddenly or gradually get worse, but you should seek help as soon as you notice their appearance, because the sooner the treatment, the greater the chances of a woman's cure and recovery.