2023-08-05 04:55:00
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this Friday (04), for the first time, a pill for the treatment of postpartum depression, a condition that is believed to affect about half a million women annually. in the country.
The antidepressant drug, called zuranolone, “is the first oral medication indicated to treat postpartum depression (PPD),” the FDA said. “Until now, treatment for PPD has only been available as an intravenous injection given by a healthcare professional in some centers.”
Asima Ahmad, medical director at the Carrot Fertility Health Center in Menlo Park, Calif., said, “About one in eight women have PPD symptoms. Of those who do report symptoms, 75% do not receive treatment.”
Developed specifically to treat the disease, the pill has been shown to act more quickly than other antidepressants and must be taken for two weeks. Tests showed less severe side effects than other antidepressants currently used.
Tiffany Farchione, chief of psychiatry at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, explained that PPD is “a serious and potentially life-threatening condition in which a woman experiences sadness, guilt, feelings of worthlessness and, in severe cases, thoughts of harming herself or the baby”.
Developed by Sage Therapeutics, the pill will be marketed under the name Zurzuvae and its price has not yet been announced.
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