Trastornos afectivos posparto / Affective disorders among women during post partum

RESUMEN

Las mujeres presentan mayor prevalencia durante la vida de episo-dios afectivos, en especial de tipo depresivo. El puerperio es uno de los periódos de mayor riesgo para desarrollar depresión por ser un tiempo de gran exigencia física y emocional tanto para la nueva madre como para la familia en general. Esto acarrea un aumento de la morbilidad, mortalidad y se asocia con un mayor riesgo de presentar nuevos episodios posteriores, en especial en los pospar-tos siguientes. Conociéndose que éste es un periódo en el que la mujer y su hijo acuden frecuentemente a los servicios de salud, se pretende, en el presente artículo hacer una revisión de la literatura disponible, que de herramientas a los médicos no psiquiatras para reconocer y manejar adecuadamente el trastorno y con eso disminuir sus consecuencias negativas. [Orejarena SJ. Trastornos afectivos posparto. MedUNAB 2004; 7134-9]

ABSTRACT

Affective disordersamong women during post partum. Women, in general, present a high rate of prevalence of affective disorders, mainly depressive ones, during their lives. This is even more evident during their puerperal time, were depression is quite common. This is, probably, due to the fact of a highest physical and emotional needs during this difficult period, for both the mother and the fam-ily, as well. This clinical condition will increase both the mobility and mortality rates among puerperal women and will increase the risk for new episodes of depression on future pregnancies. Since we all know that during puerperium, both mother and child are usually attended by the Health System, this is a good time to detect these disorders. Therefore, we will try to review the pertinent medical literature regarding this probem, in order to provide the psychiatrist and another physicians with new, effective tools, that will allow them to recognize earlier, patients with this disorder, handle them properly to avoid all negative consequences