How is postpartum depression different from D-MER?
D-MER is not postpartum depression, and it often seems that this can not be emphasized enough. In fact the medications most commonly prescribed for PPD have no effect on D-MER. D-MER is a separate condition from PPD. It is an emotional overload that is fleeting, that sweeps over a mother like a wave, before letdown. A mother can have PPD and D-MER, but most (75%) don’t. Those who do have a mood disorder in conjunction with D-MER can always distinguish D-MER from their perhaps “regularly dysphoric” mood with a wave at letdown that it even more dysphoric. It is very likely many mothers have been diagnosed with PPD when if fact they have D-MER, as many mothers say that, before they knew it was D-MER, they thought that they had “PPD now and again” or “postpartum depression that comes and goes.” Postpartum depression does not come and go, but D-MER does.
