NEW DELHI New Delhi: Scientists have linked symptoms of depression during pregnancy to a specific brain activity, and hope to develop a test for “baby blues” risk.About 80 percent of women suffer from the “baby blues” after their baby is born.Usually, it is a brief period of feeling sad that disappears in a few days. But about one in seven women develop postpartum depression, a more serious depression that can affect the bond mothers form with their baby and can have long-term consequences.

These women seem unable to control the negative emotions they experience after giving birth. A group of European researchers has found that in healthy pregnant women, activity in a specific area of ​​the brain is associated with the regulation of negative emotions and the tendency to have symptoms of depression. The researchers hope that testing for this activity, as well as how emotions are regulated, will indicate which women are at risk for postpartum depression.

“This is one of the first trials to compare brain activity in pregnant and non-pregnant women. The ability to regulate emotions is essential for mental health, and this interplay was our starting point,” said Franziska Weinmar of the University of Tubingen in Germany. For the study, researchers took 15 healthy pregnant women with very high estrogen levels (due to pregnancy).

Each woman was placed in an MRI scanner and shown disturbing/upsetting pictures. The team found that in the MRI scans, pregnant women who showed greater activity in the amygdala when regulating their emotions were less successful at regulating emotions. In addition, pregnant women with this greater activity in the amygdala reported more symptoms of depression.

“If larger studies confirm higher activity in the amygdala in women at risk of postpartum depression, we could assess and specifically target these women during this sensitive phase,” said Wenmar. “We still have a long way to go in understanding what happens in the brain during pregnancy, identifying biomarkers that may indicate the risk of developing perinatal psychiatric disorders, and devising strategies to protect mother and baby from suffering during the delicate and critical perinatal period,” said Dr. Susana Carmona, of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid.