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Whether postpartum depression (PPD) is a separate entity or occurs within the natural course of depression remains uncertain. Prior investigatory attempts had limitations, with most studies not including comparisons to depression incidence at other times and lacking clinical diagnoses or medical record verification of recurrent depression, a known risk factor for PPD. To overcome these limitations, investigators used Swedish birth and medical registries of 707,701 mothers with first live singleton births to examine whether women with and without PPD histories have similar rates of depression within 12 months of delivery.
Using a random date derived from the mean delivery dates of similarly aged women (either >12 months before or >3 months af…