Paternal postpartum depression in an obsessive personality following the COVID-19 lockdown successfully treated with Vortioxetine

Abstract

Introduction A growing amount of studies investigating the mental health impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic worldwide have been recently published, even though very few studies investigating the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown on the mental health of fathers of newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on paternal postpartum depression (PPD). Objectives A case report describing a 37-years-old man with an obsessive-compulsive personality who manifests the onset of a clinically relevant PPD following his wife’s delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of obsessive symptomatology. Methods At baseline and during a 12-months follow-up were administered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19-S), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) and Y-BOCS-II (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale). Results Patient was successfully treated with vortioxetine up to 20 mg/die with a significant clinical remission of depressive and obsessive symptomatology at 6 months and a maintenance therapy with vortioxetine 10 mg daily. Conclusions PPD should be better investigated, particularly the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of fathers of newborns during the COVID-19-related situation. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Keywords

• Covid-19
• lockdown
• paternal postpartum depression
• obsessive personality