Apostol SE1, MS; Petrisor AI2, MSPH; Strungaru C3, Ph.D.; and Schiefenhövel W4, Ph.D., MD
1 Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology "D. Danielopolu", Bucharest, Romania
2 Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
3 Department of Animal Physiology, University of Bucharest, Romania
4 Department of Behavioral Studies, Max Planck Institute, Andechs, Germany
(Bulletin of the South Carolina Academy of Science, Vol. LXIII, 2001, pp. 95)
Traditionally, postpartum blues and postpartum depression were considered hormonal disturbances, as well as affective disorders occurring after birth. The evolutionary approach originated with questions as: "Why should a woman develop such disorders in a time when the baby requires the highest level of care?", "Why do these affections appear to the majority of women in the Western countries)?", or, "Is this an adaptive behavior or an effect of our present way of seeing the birth and the parturient, which is very different from the ancestral one?" This ongoing epidemiological study, based on a questionnaire administered to parturient in Bucharest, Romania short time after birth, aims to approach postpartum depression from the evolutionary perspective. Preliminary results on small samples indicate several possible risk factors.