title: Postpartum depression: bipolar or unipolar? Analysis of 434 Polish postpartum women.
abstract: To assess the prevalence of soft bipolar features in a sample of women with postpartum depressive symptoms, as well as to compare the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics of subjects with bipolar or unipolar postpartum depressive symptomatology.
  
  
  
  Four hundred and thirty-four participants were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), while the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) was used to screen for bipolarity features.
  
  
  
  Of the 434 participants, 66 (15.2%) scored ≥ 13 points on the EPDS, thus fulfilling the screening criteria, and 103 scored ≥ 7 points on the MDQ. In comparison with non-depressed subjects, the women who scored positively on the EPDS were significantly more likely to exhibit symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders (38 vs. 21%; chi-square test, p = 0.015). Women with bipolar PPD symptomatology were significantly younger than those exhibiting unipolar PPD symptoms (31.0±4.8 years vs. 28.5±4.1 years; t-test, p = 0.03). The groups did not differ in terms of obstetric characteristics.
  
  
  
  Our findings suggest that patients with PPD symptomatology may be more likely to exhibit soft bipolarity features as compared with non-depressed women.
authors.affiliation: Section of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Rafał R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Jaeschke
authors.affiliation: Section of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dudek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Topór-Mądry
authors.affiliation: Section of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Drozdowicz
authors.affiliation: Section of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Datka
authors.affiliation: Section of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siwek
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Psychiatry, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
authors.forename: Janusz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rybakowski