The first postpartum depression medication is approved in the United States

The FDA, the US Food and Drug Administration. approved for the first time a drug specifically indicated for the treatment of postpartum depression, the number one health complication during and after pregnancy.

It's about the medicine brexanolone, which will be sold in that country under the name of Zulresso. It has been shown in clinical trials that it works within hours to treat the symptoms of postpartum depression, a serious mental illness that affects one in seven mothers after childbirth.

A restricted medication

However, it does not seem to be very accessible, at least for now. Your application is an intravenous injection in the form of a drip for 60 hours, that is, two and a half days, so it requires the patient's admission

And another barrier is the price, since the treatment will cost between 17,000 and 30,000 euros, according to Sage Therapeutics, the company that developed it.

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They have also reported that the medication will be available at the end of June in the United States, only through a restricted program called the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategy Program (REMS) that requires the drug to be administered by a health care provider at a certified health care facility, the FDA said in a Press release announcing approval.

“Postpartum depression is a disease that, when severe, can be fatal. Women may have thoughts that lead them to harm themselves or their children, ”said Tiffany Farchione, acting director of the psychiatric products division of the Drug Evaluation Center of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) .

Act in 48 hours

The advantage of the drug is that it acts very quickly, just two days after its administration, while traditional antidepressants may take weeks or months to take effect. Among their side effects, they observed some very slight, such as headache, dizziness or excessive sleepiness.

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Postpartum depression is more frequent than we think. There are many women who live with an invisible ghost that prevents them from feeling happy after giving birth. A condition that requires more attention in postpartum checkups to identify any warning signs in the recent mother.

Hopefully it will continue to be researched and will be able to develop more accessible medicines for those women who need it.

Video: Implementing Postpartum Depression Screening in Infant Well Child Checks (March 2024).