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Postpartum psychosis (or puerperal psychosis) is a term that covers a group of mental illnesses with the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth. A typical example is for a woman to become irritable, have extreme mood swings and hallucinations, and possibly need psychiatric hospitalization. Often, out of fear of stigma or misunderstanding, women hide their condition. Although there are factors that contribute to an increased risk of developing postpartum psychosis, such as an underlying bipolar disorder, or a previous postpartum psychosis, ''any'' pregnant woman is ''potentially'' at risk. This illness can take the woman, her family and her medical providers completely by surprise. Two steps that can be taken to mitigate this risk are 1. The taking of a thorough, detailed history prior to giving birth by a competent professional, and 2. Education of medical care professionals, expectant women and their families. In the group of illnesses that fall under "postpartum psychosis" there are at least a dozen organic psychoses, which are described under another heading "organic pre- and postpartum psychoses". The relatively common non-organic form, still prevalent in Europe, North America and throughout the world, is sometimes called puerperal bipolar disorder, because of its close link with manic depressive (bipolar) disorder; but some of these mothers have atypical symptoms (see below), which come under the heading of acute polymorphic (cycloid) psychosis (schizophreniform in the US). Puerperal mania was first clearly described by the German obstetrician Friedrich Benjamin Osiander in 1797, and a literature of over 2,000 works has accumulated since then. These psychoses are endogenous, heritable illnesses with acute onset, benign episodic course and response to mood-normalizing and mood-stabilizing treatments. The inclusion of severe postpartum depression under postpartum psychosis is controversial: many clinicians would allow this only if depression was accompanied by psychotic features (see below). The onset is abrupt, and symptoms rapidly reach a climax of severity. Manic and acute polymorphic forms almost always start within the first 14 days, but depressive psychosis may develop somewhat later. In some cases, psychosis can develop during pregnancy. ==Symptoms== Some women have typical manic symptoms, such as euphoria, overactivity, decreased sleep requirement, loquaciousness, flight of ideas, increased sociability, disinhibition, irritability, violence and delusions, which are usually grandiose or religious in content; on the whole these symptoms are more severe than in mania occurring at other times, with highly disorganized speech and extreme excitement. Others have severe depression with delusions, auditory hallucinations, mutism, stupor or transient swings into hypomania. Some switch from mania to depression (or vice versa) within the same episode. Atypical features include perplexity, confusion, emotions like extreme fear and ecstasy, catatonia or rapid changes of mental state with transient delusional ideas; these are so striking that some authors have regarded them as a distinct, specific disease, but they are the defining features of acute polymorphic (cycloid) psychoses, and are seen in other contexts (for example, menstrual psychosis) and in men. Although postpartum psychosis can be severe, it is not always obvious. First, it occurs during a time that is a period of disruption for many families, so oddities may be attributed to just being tired or stressed. Second, the symptoms can wax and wane. Third, a woman may try to hide her symptoms from others. Therefore it is advisable for medical care providers to do a careful screen, not simply rely on self-reportage. Those concerned that a loved one may have this illness might want to ask her to do math problems that would have been easy for her prior to pregnancy, ask her to read a few paragraphs of something out loud, or ask her to explain the "why" of something in detail. These tasks can be difficult for a woman experiencing postpartum psychosis. The ability of the woman to perform these tasks does not mean she DOES NOT have postpartum psychosis, but the inability to do tasks she easily could do before indicates the need to seek medical help. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Postpartum psychosis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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