Does treatment through pregnancy into the postpartum period prevent recurrence of a postpartum mood disorder?
There is minimal evidence to support that theory, but data conflict. Wisner and colleagues8-10 studied the effects of starting treatment immediately after delivery compared to watchful waiting. Initially, she used nortriptyline and there was no difference between nortriptyline and placebo. Then she looked at sertraline to see if treatment would be more effective than placebo as a secondary prevention, and there did appear to be a more palliative effect. However, a more recent, definitive study10 showed no difference between treatments.
