Post-natal (-partum) depression, illness or disease?

Abstract

Post-natal depression is a label used in the medical sciences and in the social sciences as well as by layman. The label covers various interpretations of the specific problems of post-natal depression (PND) and their cause. This article presents the interim results of a pilot study now in progress, in which the distressed mothers themselves describe how they experience the PND problems and re-evaluate them with a prospect of hormone therapy. The results offer evidence that there is some shared reality within the PND experiences.

The divergent interpretations of PND put forward by professionals help the women to make sense of the PND reality and to deal with their problems. The distressed women look for a specific therapy consistent with the explanation given for their problems. Most of the women in the pilot group had been given other explanations of their problems and other diagnoses besides the hypothesis of imbalance of hormone levels. The women had in the past seen a variety of specialists, which had resulted in different therapies matching the diagnosis in question.

After partially successful treatment, the women attempted to find a final answer in a different interpretation of their problems and consequently another form of therapy.

The prospect of hormone therapy offers women a possibility to label ‘abnormal’ behaviour and ‘abnormal’ mood disturbances as symptoms of a somatic illness. Women can choose either to wait passively until the hormone therapy restores their sense of health, or to work actively on the improvement of their situation concurrently with the therapy.