Objectives: As a common postpartum complication, postpartum depression is an important social and health problem. Postpartum depression causes many changes in relevant indicators, such as inflammatory factors and thyroid hormones. However, the effects of inflammatory factors, thyroid hormones and xanthine on postpartum depression have not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to clarify the changes in the key indicators of postpartum depression.
Material and methods: A total of 139 pregnant women were included in this study. Finally, only 56 patients completed the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EPDS) evaluation and blood sample collection.
Results: In the current study, 34 (60.7%) patients were normal, 10 (17.9%) women were depressive tendency and 12 (21.4%) women developed depression. Among the serum indexes detected, the expression levels of thyroid function indexes T3, T4 and TSH, and inflammatory factors, such as hs-CRP, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α, in the EPDS ≥ 9 group were slightly higher than those in the normal group (EPDS < 9). Xanthine levels in the depression group (EPDS ≥ 13) were significantly higher than normal group (EPDS < 9).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that xanthine levels in patients with postpartum depression were increased significantly, but there were no significant changes in thyroid function and some inflammatory indexes. Therefore, timely detection and intervention of maternal xanthine may help reduce the incidence of postpartum depression.
Keywords: EDS; EPDS; IL-6; inflammatory factors; postpartum depression; thyroid function; xanthine.