Postpartum depression is well-known in women who have given birth.  As many as 15 percent of new mothers may experience all the symptoms of major depression in the months following a delivery.  These symptoms can include low mood, low energy, tearfulness, altered sleep patterns, changes in appetite, inability to concentrate, low self-esteem.  They can even include suicidal thinking or bizarre and false beliefs called delusions, which are a form of psychosis. 

Thankfully, awareness of postpartum depression in women has increased dramatically amongst clinicians and the general population. 

What many fewer people realize is that new fathers can fall victim to postpartum depression, too. In my own practice I have seen it happen several times, and research indicates that perhaps 10 percent of men become acutely depressed in the postnatal period.  Their symptoms mimic those of women with the disorder, but they may be even less likely to get help because they believe admitting to their suffering would make them look weak at a time when they want to be seen by others as especially strong.

In the men I have treated, the joys of having a new son or daughter have mingled with complex worries about whether they would be able to support larger families, whether they would lose the affection of their wives and whether they would be equal to the daunting task of being role models for their children.   For some, becoming fathers seemed to bring them uncomfortably in touch with their own mortality, as they contemplated being survived by their offspring.

I have noticed a particular vulnerability to postpartum depression in new fathers who had strained or frankly painful relationships with their own dads.  The recreation of a father-child bond, albeit in a different time and place, with a very new role, can bring a man into unbearably close contact with unresolved conflicts from his own childhood.   “How am I supposed to be a father when I wasn’t fathered at all myself?” one of my patients asked me.

Fortunately, postpartum depression in men responds to the treatments that relieve clinical depression in other settings.  Psychotherapy can be invaluable, as can antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.  A new technologies, called rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation), has also been approved by the FDA. 

Using the tools in our therapeutic armamentarium, psychiatrists can defeat depression in over 90 percent of cases.  That means that recognizing the signs and symptoms of the condition is half the battle. 

So if you know a man struggling with his mood and his energy level weeks or months after his partner gives birth, don’t assume it’s all about staying up with the baby. Share what you now know about postpartum depression:  It doesn’t just affect new mothers.

There’s no doubt that this H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, has been a real doozy. With more than 1 million people infected in the U.S. alone and approximately 263 deaths, attention must be paid to a potentially worsening condition.

I typically don’t like to scare people into paying attention to health care issues, but I do think that as soon as a vaccine becomes available here in the U.S. for the H1N1 virus, you should get it.

I recently learned of two alarming cases where pregnant women became affected with the H1N1 virus. Any type of flu can be quite devastating for a pregnant patient. The reason for the significant effect in pregnancy is that pregnant women typically have suppressed immune systems and their pulmonary compliance is significantly altered due to the pressure from the pregnant uterus. So when they get the flu, it could very quickly turn into a deadly pneumonia with very high degrees of complication for both the mother and the unborn child.

That was just the case with these two recent reports — one from Australia where a mother fell ill from the swine flu and ultimately the baby died in utero, and in the other case, a woman in Florida had to deliver at 27 weeks of gestation due to the flu, and the infant ultimately died from complications associated with his prematurity.

So the message is loud and clear: This new virus is very contagious. We don’t have natural immunity, and if you have any risk factors — especially if you’re pregnant — get the vaccine as soon as it is available.

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Her parents were told she was stillborn, but less than a day later, a baby girl born in Bombay was heard making gurgling noises at the cemetary where her family had brought her to be buried.

Is it a miracle? Or is it malpractice? The hospital where the infant was birthed has launched an investigation to see if medical staff erred when they pronounced the baby dead.