GA during cesarean may increase likelihood of postpartum depression

Postpartum depression has increased seven-fold in the past 15 years in the US, and it now affects up to 1 in 7 women, yielding about 550,000 annual new cases.

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center have found in a new study that having general anesthesia in a cesarean delivery is linked with significantly increased odds of severe postpartum depression.The patient may report thoughts of suicide or self-inflicted injury and the condition may be so severe that it may even require hospitalization. The findings of research have been published online in Anesthesia and Analgesia, the journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

The study is the first to examine the effect of the mode of anesthesia for cesarean delivery on the risk of postpartum depression (PPD) and the possible protective effect of having regional anesthesia for cesarean delivery on maternal mental health compared with general anesthesia.

"General anesthesia for cesarean delivery may increase the risk of postpartum depression because it delays the initiation of mother to infant skin-to-skin interaction and breastfeeding, and often results in more acute and persistent postpartum pain," said Jean Guglielminotti, MD, PhD, in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and first author. "These situations are often coupled with a new mother's dissatisfaction with anesthesia in general, and can lead to negative mental health outcomes."