Journal article
The relationship between oxytocin blood concentrations and antidepressants over pregnancy and the postpartum
M Galbally, SJ Watson, JA Keelan, O Spigset, A Lewis
Progress in Neuro Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2021
Abstract
Antidepressant treatment of perinatal depression is increasingly common and accepted in clinical guidelines. It has been suggested that serotonergic antidepressants may effect changes in the oxytocinergic system, including oxytocin levels, and that this may be one of the beneficial mechanisms of action for these drugs. Furthermore, oxytocin has been associated with the quality of the parent-child relationship, which may be important in treatment of perinatal depression. This study will explore if there is a relationship between antidepressant use over the perinatal period and oxytocin levels. Data from a pregnancy cohort study are used from 279 women across three groups: women taking antidep..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This study is supported through the 2012 National Priority Funding Round of Beyond blue in a three-year research grant (ID 519240) and a 2015 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant for 5 years (APP1106823). Financial support has also been obtained from the Academic Research Development Grants from Mercy Health and from the Centre for Mental Health and Well-Being, Deakin University. Funding specifically for the oxytocin analysis was provided by the Pat and Toni Kinsman Postnatal Depression Scholarship, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. The authors would like to thank those who have both supported and given advice in the development of MPEWS including: Marinus van IJzendoorn, Ron de Kloet, Michael Permezel, Anne Buist, Philip Boyce and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg. In addition, we acknowledge contributions by Dr. Shaofu Li for assisting in the blood analysis of oxytocin and Ms. Elizabeth Nathan for assistance with the early statistical analyses in this paper. The authors also thank the staff and students on the study and research co-ordinators: Tina Vaiano and Nicole Brooks for their contribution to MPEWS. We are also sincerely grateful to the study participants who have contributed a substantial amount of time to participating in this study.