Postnatal depression: A personal view

This week's issue heralds the arrival of an occasional feature written by patients under the banner Personal account. A Commentary outlines how these occasional essays will aim to remind readers what medicine means to the patient and will usually be commissioned to accompany a Seminar or Review article in the journal.

The first account links to a Seminar on postpartum psychoses (p 303) by Ian Brockington (University of Birmingham, UK), who says recognition of this wide range of disorders-including post-traumatic stress disorder, postpartum depression, and obsessions of child harm-is important because they can have long-term effects but generally respond to treatment. He concludes that multidisciplinary teams are valuable in postpartum psychiatry.

The Personal account (p 311) details one woman's frightening descent into postnatal depression and the response of the medical community and support groups to help her overcome an illness all too familiar to many mothers worldwide.

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