Abstracts and Reviews : MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL CRITIQUE by G. STERN and L. KRUCKMAN. Social Science and Medicine (1983) 17:1027-1041
Abstract
Abstracts and ReviewsMULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL CRITIQUE by G. STERN and L. KRUCKMAN. Social Science and Medicine (1983) 17:1027-1041 SAGE Publications, Inc.1984DOI: 10.1177/136346158402100303 F. Engelsmann We report this anthropological critique of multidisciplinary approaches to the study of post-partum depression because of its comprehensive and thorough insight into the clinical, cross-cultural, and methodological problems concerning 1) the so-called baby or maternity blues, 2) clinical depression, and 3) psychosis after childbirth. The baby or maternity blues which refer to minor and transitory affective disturbances during the first days after childbirth are a common experience occurring in 50 to 80 percent of women. These mild forms of depressive symptoms and mood changes represent a benign experience which has not attracted much intensive study. Doubts about post-partum depression as a clinical entity are reflected in the DSM III (1980) which no longer lists "Psychosis with childbirth" which was included in the DSM II (1968). Nevertheless, postnatal depression is a clinically and socially important disorder occurring in 3 to 20 percent of women after childbirth, although psychotic reactions are quite rare with a reported incidence of 1 per 1000 births. Postnatal depression could be linked with biological, hormonal and psychological