The Relationship Of Serum Estradiol And 5-HT With Postpartum Depression

ObjectiveTo study the influence of serum estradiol and 5-hydroxytryptamine(5-HT) variation to postpartum depression.MethodsThe 150 patients delivered in Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from October 2008 to September 2009 were chosen, who were excluded prenatal depression and anxiety by both scores of self-rating depression scale (SDS) and Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) less than 50 prenatally. At the 3th day after delivery we used the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to assess all the cases. If EPDS score> 10, the patient was diagnosed postpartum depression. The cases were divided into depression group and normal control group, which including 22 and 22 cases respectively, the later were randomly chosen from the normal 128 cases according to the patients'age.We took 5ml of early morning fasting elbow blood of every case at the 3th day postpartum, and determined the amount serum estradiol and 5-HT with enzyme-linked immunosorbent and radioimmunoassay method. The variation of serum estradiol and 5-HT were compared between two groups, and the relationship of serum estradiol and 5-HT with Depression Scale score were analyzed.ResultsThe serum estradiol levels of depression group and the normal control group were (10.40±3.36) pg/ml and (42.52±13.98) pg/ml respectively, and the blood 5-HT levels of depression group and normal control group were (188.13±50.30) pg/ml and (468.32±85.48) pg/ml respectively. They were both lower in depression group, which both had significant difference in statistics (P<0.001). In depression group, the serum estradiol and 5-HT levels was significantly positively correlated (r= 0.841, P< 0.001), the EPDS score was significantly negative related with serum estradiol and 5-HT levels (r=-0.781 and-0.935,P<0.001 and P<0.001 respectively).ConclusionThe decrease of estradiol and 5-HT in maternal serum after delivery may be one of the reasons that lead to postpartum depression.