Postpartum Mental Disturbances with Emphasis on Postpartum Depression

The paper gives a historical survey of diagnosis of postpartum mental disturbances, and presents the classification, diagnostic cat­egories and incidence of this disorders. The biological factors involved in the development of postpartum mental disturbances include the women’s age delivery, her health status, the course of delivery and the related complica­tions, attitude of primiparous to multiparous women, family stress, relationship between mental disturbances during pregnancy and those occurring after delivery, and association between postpartum mental disturbances and mental disorders of other origin. The second part of the paper deals with postpartum depression syndrome.