Childbirth Pain and Post-Partum Depression: Does Labor Epidural Analgesia Decrease This Risk?

Abstract

Daniele C Parise,1 Caitlin Gilman,2 Matthew A Petrilli,3 Dolores Malaspina4 1Scope Anesthesia of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA; 2Department of Pediatrics, Montefiore Children’s Hospital, Einstein Medical School, New York, NY, USA; 3Sentara Behavioral Health Specialists, South Boston, VA, USA; 4Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY, USACorrespondence: Dolores MalaspinaDepartment of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, One Gustave L Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY, 10039, USATel [phone]Email [email protected]: Post-partum depression (PPD) is a common complication of pregnancy worldwide with a prevalence as high as 15% in some countries. Pain has been identified as a risk factor for major depression; however, the relationship between labor-related pain and PPD is less understood. This article sought out to examine the relationship between pain and PPD, examining whether there is a correlation that reducing pain through epidural analgesia can lower the risk for PPD. A PubMed database search was performed using the keywords “post-partum depression” and “labor epidural”. Multiple articles including 2 meta-analyses were evaluated for the association between post-partum depression and epidural analgesia for labor. Although there is evidence supporting labor epidural analgesia reducing PPD, many studies including the meta-analyses did not uphold the hypothesis. More well-designed studies on this topic need to be investigated in order to substantiate the current evidence in the literature.Keywords: labor pain, labor epidural, post-partum depression, consult liason psychiatry, pain management, reproductive psychiatry

Keywords

• labor pain
• labor epidural
• post-partum depression
• consult liason psychiatry
• pain management
• reproductive psychiatry