A mother of two, Stephanie Hathaway, who suffered from postpartum depression after the second child’s birth, shared her experience recently. She had decided to participate in a study related to a drug that treats postpartum depression, named Zulresso. This drug is the first-ever medication that helps the women going through a postpartum depression (PPD). Food and Drug Administration approved it on Tuesday, 19 March and is a new medication from Sage Therapeutics.
The experience of Hathaway was pretty good. She said that her intrusive thoughts vanished after taking the medicines and did not come back. The medicine is quite costly and may cost about $20,000 to $35,000 for each treatment. Zulresso will be available to the patients for use as early as June, only under prescription and strict supervision. The women suffering from postpartum depression will be given a single, 60-hour intravenous (IV) infusion of Zulresso at some local health-care center, as said by Steve Kanes, a Chief Medical Officer at Sage Therapeutics.
Hathaway says that she just feels that a cloud was lifted and then she walked out of the hospital feeling normal and herself. Hathaway is 33 years old and has 2 kids of age 4 and 2. After her pregnancy, she was not able to clean herself, cook anything and not even take care of the babies. Depressing thoughts were constantly going on in her head constantly. She was feeling a lot of fear, hopelessness and struggle all the time.
In the US, one in nine women experiences postpartum depression, as per the CDC. Its symptoms include mood swings, intense anxiety or anger, difficulty in bonding with baby, thoughts like harming the baby or yourself, feeling of fear that you aren’t a good mother, etc. There are different therapies for treating PDP at present. These involve talking or using antidepressants, however, these take weeks to bring results. Zulresso has an immediate effect on the patients and can be life-saving for them. It is different from most antidepressants used by people.
