Brief report
Working and short-term memories are impaired in postpartum depression

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Abstract

Background

Postpartum depression affects parents of newborns. Major depression causes cognitive prejudice. Nothing is known about memory impairment in those affected of postpartum depression. This study has a purpose to assess working and short-term memories during the postpartum period in mothers and fathers in the city of Pelotas, RS, Brazil and also to correlate the changes in memory with postpartum depression, sociodemographic factors and possible confounding factors.

Methods

This cross-sectional study includes families assisted by the public health system. The sample consisted of fathers and mothers of live births, born from March to December 2008. The participants were evaluated during home visits using the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the word span test. The cutoff point for depression in the EPDS scores was ≥ 13, and the word span scores were evaluated as discrete variables.

Results

The sample consisted of 395 individuals (222 women and 173 men). The prevalence of depression was 16.2% among mothers and 5.2% among fathers. Depressed individuals performed worse on the memory test.

Limitations

The number of men evaluated was smaller than that of women. That's a transversal study, so we have the prevalence bias.

Conclusions

This study shows that postpartum depression affects both men and women, and the symptoms of depression affect the working and short-term memories of affected individuals. Given that this was a larger study than those in the literature, the results emphasize the importance of detecting and treating postpartum depression and helping affected families.

Introduction

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a mood disorder that affects 10 to 28% of women and may occur up to one year after delivery (Andrews-Fike, 1999, Lacerda et al., 2009, Lee and Chung, 2007, Moraes et al., 2006).

Individuals with PPD exhibit depressed mood, fatigue/low-energy level, anhedonia, low self-esteem, loss of concentration, social isolation, irritability, anxiety and feelings of worthlessness, guilt and hopelessness (Bornstein et al., 1991, Lee and Chung, 2007, McLaren et al., 2007). These symptoms can result in feeling unable to take care of the baby, fear of hurting the baby, thoughts of harming oneself or others, suicidal ideations and feeling disconnected from the baby (Lacerda et al., 2009). Postpartum depression may lead to child abuse, infanticide and suicidal behavior (Lee and Chung, 2007, Wisner et al., 2006). In addition to the harm done to the mother and child over the course of this disorder, long-term effects can be observed in the development of the child, especially in terms of cognition, including language, intelligence and memory (Grace et al., 2003).

One highly significant clinical finding of depression is the slowing of mental processes, which is expressed as an impairment of focus, memory and flow of thought. The depressed patient frequently complains of forgetfulness (Danion et al., 1991, Lacerda et al., 2009). The changes in cognitive processes affect reasoning and, consequently, the capacity for understanding and verbal memory (Kaneda, 2009, Lyche et al., 2011).

The mental health of the parents is extremely important in the interaction with the newborns. If the depressed parents present impaired memory, the baby may receive insufficient care. As PPD is an easily treatable disorder, its detection is imperative for the well being of the affected families (Wan et al., 2011).

The purpose of this study is to assess the working and short-term memories of parents and to compare differences between depressed and non-depressed individuals.

Section snippets

Methods

This cross-sectional study includes families assisted by the Public Health System residing in Pelotas, RS, Brazil. The sample consisted of fathers and mothers, living as a couple or not, of live births born between March and December 2008. Parents were included in the study if they resided in the urban area of the city and were able to understand and sign the informed consent form. Parents who exhibited signs of deafness or a hearing deficit that prevented auditory comprehension were excluded

Results

Out of the 484 people invited to take part in the study, 89 (18.4%) declined to participate or withdrew. Thus, the sample was composed of 395 people in the postpartum period. Of these, 222 (56.2%) were women, and 173 (43.8%) were men; the majority of the participants were between 20 and 34 years of age (70.6%) and had incomplete secondary education or less (291, 88.7%) (Table 1).

The overall prevalence of PPD in the sample was 11.4% (45), with 16.2% of women and 5.2% of men. Among the

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between PPD and working and short-term memories. The hypothesis, that depressed parents would have worse results in the memory test, was supported, as there were significant associations for all mnemonic domains evaluated when individuals with and without PPD were compared.

A PPD prevalence of 16.2% was found for the evaluated women, which is similar to that found in a previous study within the same target population (Moraes et al., 2006

Role of funding source

This article does not have funding source.

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, Juliana Sartori Bonini assures that there are no conflicts of interest between authors and institution where the project was developed.

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