Sad motherhood: An overview of perinatal affective disorders

Depression is at least twice as common in women as in men (Gater et al., 1998; O'Keane, 2000), and peaks during women's reproductive years. The postpartum period was thought for a long time to be the period when the risk for depression is at its highest. However, many research workers have demonstrated convincingly that rates of non-psychotic depression in the ®rst year postpartum are not dissimilar to rates outside this period (Eberhard-Gran et al., 2002; Evans et al., 2001; Gotlib et al., 1989).