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Clinical depression is a mental disorder characterized by an array of symptoms that, when severe, can affect nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Most people have experienced extreme sadness, but that feeling usually comes from or is affected by the circumstances around them and is usually short-lived. For example, the death of a loved one could cause someone to enter a short-term depressive period. For many people with clinical depression, the symptoms come on without warning and seemingly without cause. To receive a diagnosis of clinical depression, one must experience at least five symptoms for two weeks or longer. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the most common symptoms include:

I first noticed our art director’s performance start to slip a few months after she came back from maternity leave. At first, she had been her usual self: sharp, dedicated, punctual, funny. She seemed to be handling the transition back to the office well. Then she began coming in late and walking straight to her office instead of chatting with the rest of us over coffee in the kitchen. When we started working on a major ad campaign with a sneaker retailer, our small firm’s biggest client, she was consistently late with the layouts and her ideas just didn’t seem as inspired as usual. Then, she missed an important internal review meeting and I really started getting annoyed. One quarter of our annual revenue was riding on this campaign. I decided I needed to talk with her about her performance and started steeling myself for the discussion.

In an effort to get treatment to the millions of Americans suffering from undiagnosed depression, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) recently recommended that all adults be screened for the disease. Published in the January 26, 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the USPSTF recommendation places special emphasis on screening pregnant and postpartum women who are less likely to be diagnosed and treated. The USPSTF’s recommendation is a major step towards adoption of the practice nationwide.

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects approximately 13 percent of women and is brought on by a change in hormone levels after childbirth. Being a new mom can be overwhelming and feelings of insecurity are normal. Unfortunately, for some women these feelings turn into extreme anxiety or sadness and can inhibit a woman’s ability to care for herself and her new baby.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a treatable medical illness that’s brought on by a change in hormone levels after childbirth. Affecting approximately 13 percent of women, PPD can cause extreme feelings of anxiety or sadness and can interfere with a woman’s ability to care for herself or her new baby.

PPD can develop anywhere from a few weeks to a year after delivery, but it’s most commonly diagnosed during the first three month after birth. For some women, PPD can be difficult to diagnose since many of the symptoms can be similar to the “baby blues” or other illnesses. It’s important to talk to your doctor at the first signs of sadness or depression to get properly diagnosed and discuss treatment options.

Without treatment, depression can have long-term consequences for you and your baby, including inadequate mother-child bonding. Without this special bond, research shows that children can later have behavioral problems and developmental delays.

There are several treatment strategies for postpartum depression. For many women, utilizing all of these strategies together brings them the most successful outcome.

Postpartum depression can occur in any woman after giving birth, or having a miscarriage or stillbirth. According to the American Psychological Association, an estimated 9% to 16% of women will experience postpartum depression.

PPD can sometimes be confused with the “baby blues” which affects up to 80% of mothers. Baby blues can cause women to experience feelings of worry, unhappiness or fatigue after having a baby. The difference is that these feelings are mild, usually only last a couple of weeks and go away on their own. PPD can cause extreme feelings of anxiety or sadness and can interfere with a woman’s ability to care for herself or her new baby. PPD can begin any time after childbirth, but women usually start feeling depressed one week to a month after delivery. For some women PPD can start slowly and then build for three to four months.