Is Zuranolone a Game-Changing Drug for Postpartum Depression?

glamour.com:

(sold under the brand name Zurzuvae), the first oral medication created specifically to target . Considering that the news cycle more commonly focuses on the tragic consequences of the rarest and most extreme circumstances of (as it would for many New Yorkers ), the announcement felt like a dramatic shift.

And a necessary one: One in five mothers will experience a mood or anxiety disorder (or PMAD) during pregnancy or postpartum, around may develop postpartum depression, and are at a notably higher risk of both.But can zuranolone be a fix for these wide-ranging issues?

First, though it’s being touted as a first for postpartum depression (which, admittedly, makes for a very compelling headline), that’s not exactly true.

In 2019, the FDA approved brexanolone, which works in a very similar way but is administered via IV instead of orally. “You can imagine all of the procedural as well as logistical complications involved in going in for an IV when you’re in the postpartum period,” says New York-based reproductive psychiatrist Lucy Hutner, MD. “It’s just not the most feasible thing to do postpartum.”Zuranolone, on the other hand, appears to be a far more practical option.