A team of researchers from the University of Virginia in the U.S. and a group of institutions in the U.K. conducted a joint research which successfully recognized a blood marker that would detect if women are at risk of postpartum depression, a condition considered debilitating enough and usually afflicts mothers after labor. Infants, meanwhile, are in danger of suffering from poor behavioral, cognitive and social development.
The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that up to 16 percent of American women are at risk of suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth. What is worse is that those at risk of PPD are expected to increase by up to 41 percent, especially among women who already endured the condition in their previous pregnancy.
"We can greatly improve the outcome of this disorder with the identification of markers, biological or otherwise, that can identify women who may be at risk for its development," Jessica Connelly, one of the team's senior authors and an assistant professor of Psychology at University of Virginia, explained.
According to the team, a certain oxytocin receptor has a significant role in the process. They have already linked genetic and epigenetic markers in this gene that could lead to a woman's exposure to postpartum depression.
The result of their study, published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics, points out to the link between the genotype rs53576, the control on the gene expression levels of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), and the progression of PPD, a report by Tech Times can tell.
However, the researchers believe that a more extensive study needs to be conducted to fully back the claim of this initial study, given than it has to be tested in various population samples for stronger support to the claim.
"Our data need to be replicated, but it is our hope that the oxytocin receptor marker we have identified will be useful to clinicians in identifying women at risk for postpartum depression," Aleeca Bell, the principal autho who works for the University of Illinois, Chicago, discussed.
