No Relationship between Maternal Iron Status and Postpartum Depression in Two Samples in China

Table 1

Summary of studies on maternal iron status and postpartum depression.

Country, year	Study design	Iron status	Postpartum depression	Findings
		measures and timing	measures and timing
UK, 1994 [12]	Observational	pre- and postnatal Hb (𝑛=1010)	EPDS: 10 d, 4 wk, 6 wk	No relationship
Germany, 1995 [13]	Intervational	Postnatal: anemic treated by; placebo (𝑛=36) versus anemic treated by rhEPO^a(𝑛=35) versus; nonanemic (𝑛 =  274)	blues questionnaire and SCL-90-R: 5 d	Depressive symptoms: anemic > nonanemic; anemic: placebo = rhEPO
US, 2003 [14]	Observational	Postnatal Hb: anemic (𝑛=8); versus nonanemic (𝑛=29)	CES-D: 28 d	depressive symptoms: anemic > nonanemic
S. Africa, 2005 [8]	Intervational	Postnatal: Hb, MCV, ferritin, sTfR; IDA treated by placebo (𝑛=21); versus IDA treated by iron (𝑛=30); versus nonanemic (𝑛=30)	EPDS: 10 wk, 9 mo	depressive symptoms: IDA + iron: 10 w > 9 mo; IDA + placebo: 10 wk = 9 mo
Spain, 2011 [15]	Observational	Postnatal: ferritin, transferrin, iron, sTfR	EPDS: 2 d, 8 wk, 32 wk; Women with PPD at 32 wk (𝑛=65) versus non-PPD (𝑛=664)	Ferritin concentration: PPD <  non-PPD

^arhEPO:recombinanthumanerythropoietin.