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FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

fda.gov

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Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#61
post #30

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Nobody is forcing anybody to take depression medication. The fact that it's there for people who are suffering and feel that they need it is a good thing. True, depression is a complex phenomenon, and I don't think any good doctor or psychiatrist would deny that you need social and emotional support in addition to medication. However, antidepressants seem to be a useful tool for a lot of people to manage the symptoms…

Agree with this statement wholeheartedly. Antidepressants can help many feel better and help get things moving and enable the person to make even more life changes to get even better.

#personalexperience

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#62
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of all the things that seem wrong with solving this with a pill, I think this is the single most grotesquely negligent element of this approval. Is the FDA immune from suits if this results in a generation of damaged kids? Was it so hard to say "oh..... It ends up in breast milk. We should compare the kids"? Even if it defers the approval by some years?

[flagged]

We are having regular threads on HN about how the FDA is not approving drugs fast enough and someone in our community is dying and cannot access the experimental drug that may have saved them.

Example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36827438

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#63
post #30

[flagged]

If you are not a researcher, or a physician, or some other expert, and if you have not given birth yourself, please don’t throw out this kind of ill-considered opinion. Post-partum depression (and anxiety for that matter) is more severe than just the effects of sleep deprivation and lack of support. Anything we can do to treat it, even partially, is worth doing.

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#64
post #30

[flagged]

I mean, it's not like the FDA are the ones who control legislation around what kind of support new parents can get. Take it up with the people to vote, repeatedly, to strike down paid parental leave, medical care, and other support systems.

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#65
post #30

[flagged]

I’m in this right now, my wife has symptoms that are in a word, scary. The rug pull of hormones that happens after birth, they can turn a stable, well adjusted, incredibly good mom into someone who is afraid to hold their own baby.

We’re in 3 groups, we have a private therapist for this, and if it’s anything like last time there will be another light switch at 4-6 weeks where she is suddenly back to normal. This pill is another layer of support, and a necessary one so new moms with PPD can bond with their baby, and so their partner doesn’t have to manage a two year old full time during the day and a feeding every other hour at night.

I think your care and concern is well founded, it sounds like your heart is in the right place, but I think you should re-think this take.

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#66
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 99.9999% of humanity's history, penicillin was "never needed". Antidepressant usage is universal throughout Europe. It makes more sense to treat postpartum depression, not less, because it's so likely to have a straightforward chemical cause. That's why there is an oral treatment specifically targeting it.

[flagged]

And I'm just gonna say it, are you pulling this information from anywhere other than your ass?

A large majority of the top 10 happiest countries are in Europe.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-happiest-countries-...

Re: FDA Approves First Oral Treatment for Postpartum Depression

#70

[flagged]

The alternatives that are prescribed also show up in breast milk and aren’t evaluated in infants.

No one is going to sign their infant up for that double blind study. PPD can be life or death, so it’s up to the provider to choose the risk to the mother vs. the risk to the infant. I don’t think there are any easy answers there

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