THE TYRAMINE TEST IS NOT A MARKER FOR POSTNATAL DEPRESSION - EARLY POSTPARTUM EUPHORIA MAY BE

Abnormally low tyramine test values are known to be markers for vulner ability to unipolar, but not bipolar, endogenous depression. In the pr esent study, 37 women with recent postnatal depression (25 major, 12 m inor) and 22 puerperal controls with no depressive disorder, all asses sed by Schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia (SADS-L) inte rview, together with I7 other controls, underwent the test. No signifi cant differences in tyramine sulfate output were demonstrated between the different groups. Those subjects with endogenous features accordin g to Newcastle score (n = 7) or Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) (n = 6) also had normal output. Thus, the tyramine test does not appear t o be a useful marker for vulnerability to postnatal depression. Over h alf the subjects recalled that their postnatal depression had started in the first 2 weeks postpartum. Of the total of 62 postpartum subject s interviewed with the SADS-L, ten recalled a period of euphoria in th e first postpartum week, which met RDC for hypomania and eight of them went on to become depressed postnatally. An additional patient from t he total group was hospitalized with mania.