New mothers can ward off the sadness and mood swings that often follow the birth of a child by taking three dietary supplements including blueberry juice, a study suggests.
In the first week after giving birth, about three quarters of women experience the baby blues, which usually fade within days. Those with severe cases are about four times more likely to go on to have post-natal depression, which affects one in eight mothers. Scientists in Canada say the blues can be prevented by giving women a handful of pills containing the raw materials that their brains need to make up for the chemical changes they go through after the end of pregnancy.
Two doses of concentrated blueberry juice, which helps to prevent oxidation damage to the brain’s messenger chemicals, as well as two compounds that are essential for making those chemicals, can “virtually eliminate” post-partum melancholy, according to a small clinical trial.
The researchers argue that the “nutraceutical” treatment could also be an effective way of protecting some women from post-natal depression, although this has yet to be demonstrated.
Post-partum blues are thought to be largely the indirect result of a sudden decline in a new mother’s sex hormones. As these chemicals dissipate, there is a corresponding rise in the levels of a brain enzyme known as monoamine oxidase A, which breaks down several molecules linked to happiness and motivation, including dopamine and serotonin.
A group led by Jeffrey Meyer, from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, speculated that giving women the ingredients might banish the blues.
They recruited 41 pregnant women in their late 20s and early 30s, roughly half of whom were about to give birth for the first time. Starting three days after the births, the researchers gave half of the women two blueberry drinks, 2g of tryptophan and 10g of tyrosine. The rest were not given any supplements.
The results, in the journal PNAS, indicate that the treatment worked: the depression scores for most of the mothers in the control group rose swiftly after birth, while those in the nutraceutical group barely changed. The Times
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