Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:46:18.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prospective Trial of L-tryptophan in Maternity Blues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Brian Harris*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

Summary

Under double blind conditions 55 young, bottle feeding, multiparous women received L-tryptophan 3 g daily or placebo for ten days after delivery, and were also assessed daily for psychiatric symptoms. This treatment did not reduce ‘maternity blues', but the mothers' blues scores correlated significantly with the scores for anxiety, depression and hysteria on the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire given in the eighth month of pregnancy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Coppen, A., Brooksbank, B. W. L., Eccleston, E., Peet, M. & White, S. G. (1974) Tryptophan metabolism in depressive illness. Psychological Medicine, 4, 164–73.Google Scholar
Crown, S. & Crisp, A. H. (1966) A short clinical diagnostic self-rating scale for psychoneurotic patients: The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 917–23.Google Scholar
Davidson, J. R. T. (1972) Postpartum mood change in Jamaican women. A description and discussion on its significance. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 659–63.Google Scholar
Handley, S. L., Dunn, T. L., Baker, J. M., Cockshott, C. & Gould, S., (1977) Mood changes in puerperium, and plasma tryptophan and Cortisol concentrations. British Medical Journal, ii, 1820.Google Scholar
Joseph, M. H. & Risby, D. (1975) The determination of kynurenine in plasma. Clinica Chimica Acta, 63, 197204.Google Scholar
Lubin, B., Gardener, S. H. & Roth, A. (1975) Mood and somatic symptoms during pregnancy. Psychosomatic Medicine, 37, 136–46.Google Scholar
Møller, S. E., Kirk, L. & Fremming, K. H. (1976) Plasma amino acids as an index for sub-groups in manic-depressive psychosis: correlation to effect of tryptophan. Psychopharmacology, 49, 205–13.Google Scholar
Nott, P. N., Franklin, M., Armitage, C. & Gelder, M. G. (1976) ‘Hormonal changes and mood in puerperium’. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 379–83.Google Scholar
Pitt, B. (1968) ‘Atypical’ depression following childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1325–35.Google Scholar
Pitt, B. (1973) ‘Maternity Blues’. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 431–3.Google ScholarPubMed
Stein, G., Milton, F., Bebbington, P., Wood, K. & Coppen, A. (1976) Relationship between mood disturbances and free and total plasma tryptophan in postpartum women. British Medical Journal, ii, 457.Google Scholar
Yalom, I. D., Lunde, D. T., Moos, R. H. & Hamburg, D. A. (1968) ‘Post partum blues syndrome’. Archives of General Psychiatry, 18, 1627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.