Las Vegas mom who suffered from postpartum depression shares thoughts on new medication

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - There will soon be hope for an estimated half million women who suffer from postpartum depression every year.

The FDA recently approved the first oral medication for PPD, Zuranolone, developed by Biogen and Sage Therapeutics. It’s welcome news for mothers like Early Ritter, who says she suffered from the condition with two of her four children.

“It was probably about five weeks in, I started waking up and feeling like I didn’t want to wake up, I just felt deep in despair, and I looked at my daughter and I felt this disconnect that I can’t describe, it just felt like she wasn’t mine,” Ritter said.

PPD is a condition that can affect anyone who’s experienced pregnancy and can sometimes lead to life-threatening thoughts or behaviors.

Feelings are more intense and last longer than those of “baby blues,” a term used to describe the worry, sadness, and tiredness many women experience after having a baby, according to the CDC. Recent CDC research shows that about one in eight women experience symptoms of postpartum depression.

Symptoms of postpartum depression include:

• Crying more often than usual.
• Feelings of anger.
• Withdrawing from loved ones.
• Feeling distant from your baby.
• Worrying or feeling overly anxious.
• Thinking about hurting yourself or your baby.
• Doubting your ability to care for your baby.

“We see moms go through this turmoil of feeling like they either want to harm themselves, harm their children, harm their baby, they don’t feel the worth of the world and what their place is in it,” she said.

Ritter is the Director of Women’s Health at Summerlin Hospital and helps provide support and resources for mothers after childbirth.

“We have a responsibility in our community to watch out for one another, but we just don’t do that anymore because we are so socially segregated from one another, we don’t have that community like we used to,” she added.

Ritter says she was able to bounce back from her depression thanks to antidepressants. But up until now, the only PPD medication has been available in an IV form and can cost more than $30,000.

Dr. Christina Madison with Roseman University of Health Sciences is hopeful the recently approved pill will save lives.

“Prior to this oral medication being FDA approved, there was only an injectable that was available and this medication required new moms that were suffering from postpartum depression to basically be hospitalized for two-and-half days to receive this infusion,” Dr. Madison said.

It’s the first drug specifically for postpartum that can be taken orally at home.

“It can be used for a total of 14 days and the effects of that medication after that 14-day course seem to last for many weeks after that course of therapy,” she said.

Side effects include dizziness, fatigue, drowsiness, diarrhea, cold-like symptoms and UTIs.

For Ritter, it brings new hope for moms.

“It’ll be a monumental change, we have an opportunity for people not to go through this dark place that I have and so many others have, and it is not anything anybody needs to be ashamed of, I think it needs to be embraced,” Ritter said.

The drug companies haven’t published how much the medication will cost and it’s unclear if it will be covered by public or private insurers. Sage Therapeutics plans to have patient assistance programs that will offer help with co-pays and cover the cost of the medication for uninsured or low-income mothers.

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