Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39441185›Full record

ReviewExpert review of clinical immunology2025

Conventional and new immunotherapies for immune system dysregulation in postpartum mood disorders: comparisons to immune system dysregulations in bipolar disorder, major depression, and postpartum autoimmune thyroid disease.

Hemmo A Drexhage, Veerle Bergink, Sara Poletti, Francesco Benedetti, Lauren M Osborne

Abstract readReviewComparative Study
In one paragraph

Review in Expert review of clinical immunology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Observational
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Hemmo A DrexhageDepartment of Immunology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Veerle BerginkDepartment of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Sara PolettiPsychiatry & Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano, Italy.
Francesco BenedettiPsychiatry & Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano, Italy.
Lauren M OsborneDepartments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.

Funding

Relapse risk after Discontinuation of Antidepressants during Pregnancy (R-DAP study)R01MH122869 · NIMH · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · PI Veerle Bergink · 2020 to 2026
$4.3M
The impact of prenatal maternal infection and inflammation on human brain development and psychopathology during adolescenceR01MH124776 · NIMH · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · PI BERGINK, VEERLE · 2021 to 2025
$3.6M
EU-Horizon 2020NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH122869NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH124776
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionPostpartum mood disorders are heterogenous disorders and comprise postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression. Evidence is accumulating that systemic monocyte/macrophage activation, low-grade inflammation and (premature senescence related) T cell defects increase the risk for mood disorders outside pregnancy by affecting the function of microglia and T cells in the emotional brain (the cortico-limbic system) leading to inadequate mood regulation upon stress. AREAS COVERED: The evidence in the literature that similar immune dysregulations are present in postpartum mood disorders.

resultsThe physiological postpartum period is characterized by a rapid T cell surge and a mild activation of the monocyte/macrophage system. Postpartum mood disorder patients show a diminished T cell surge (including that of T regulatory cells) and an increase in low grade inflammation, that is, an increased inflammatory state of monocytes/macrophages and higher levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines. EXPERT OPINION: Anti-inflammatory agents (e.g. COX-2 inhibitors) and T cell boosting agents (e.g. low-dose IL-2 therapy) should be further investigated as treatment. The hypothesis should be investigated that postpartum mood disorders are active episodes (triggered by changes in the postpartum immuno-endocrine milieu) in ongoing, dynamically fluctuating aberrant neuro-immune-endocrine trajectories leading to mood disorders in women (inheritably) vulnerable to these disorders.

Indexed as

Bipolar DisorderDepression, PostpartumImmunotherapyMajor Depressive DisorderMood DisordersThyroiditis, AutoimmuneAnimalsFemaleHumansPostpartum PeriodPregnancymonocytespathogenesispostpartum depressionPostpartum psychosispostpartum thyroiditisT cellstherapy

Identifiers

PMID39441185
PMCPMC11786996

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.