Post Peuperal Psychosis

[Mary]

Hello there! I have been directed to this site by pnisha. I have recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia but I believe I am suffering from ppp. When I first started getting voices in my head my son was 8 months old, so my psych refused to believe that it was ppp as the timescale was too long.
However, I felt a mixture of invincible (running out in front of cars) yet scared of going to sleep unless I died. I didn't think that I needed to eat or drink because I thought that I was an angel, i had massive stiffness in my shoulders and thought it was my wings trying to come through! Sounds bizarre I know but I truly thhought this at the time. Also, because my kids had diaorhea I thought that they were angels too and having a bad reaction to human food. On the other hand, I also thought that my partner was possessed by the devil & was trying to kill me so I tried to find a priest to help me excorcise him. They obviously laughed off THAT suggestion! Anyway, I am taking Abilify (arirpiprazole) and fluoxetine which are helping. The only thing I'd like to know is how can I be sure that I have got ppp, with more than just a gut instinct? Is my psych right about the time scale theory. Can someone with this illness please tell me if they have encountered the same problems with diagnosis, plus how can I be being treated correctly if I have a different condition to the one diagnosed?
Sorry that this is a bit rambly, a lot to describe in a few words!xx

[dave]

Hi Mary and thanks for your post.

To answer your question in the most direct way possible, the books say that puerperal psychosis affects women between 6 weeks and 6 months after birth. Assuming doctors work to such precise numbers, a woman who started having symptoms 6 months and a day after birth couldn't be diagnosed with the condition.

Unfortunately medical science is rarely that precise and is, like most science, based on averages and ranges. That's just because everyone's different. Humour me here...

To take an example, the average pregnancy is 40 weeks, but it's very rare that people actually give birth on their due date. Much more likely they'll give birth between 37 and 42 weeks. A child could be born at 36 weeks and 6 days and be classed as premature, or at 37 weeks exactly and be classed term.

I suspect the same goes for puerperal psychosis and similar conditions. Reading your list of symptoms, I think we could safely say that if you'd shown them two or three months ago, you'd have been diagnosed with puerperal psychosis instead.

That said, there's a lot of similarities between puerperal psychosis and schizophrenia, and the drugs and other treatments for the two conditions are pretty much the same. Abilify, for example, is used to treat both schizophrenia and puerperal psychosis, so at least your symptoms are being relieved by the right drugs. A quote from www.sign.ac.uk: [quote]Puerperal psychosis should be managed in the same way as psychotic disorders at any other time, but with the additional considerations regarding the use of drug treatments when breast feeding and in pregnancy [/quote]

So, in a nutshell, your psych isn't necessarily wrong; on the other hand 8 months is pretty close to 6 months. But the treatments and care needed are the same for both conditions. I don't know for schizophrenia, but for puerperal psychosis, at least in the UK, the text books say treatment should last a year. Ensure your concerns are listened to - that's probably all you can do until the year's up.

I hope that's helped a little, even though it's kind of an "I don't know" answer. If you like, please let us know how you get on, and best wishes.

D.

[Paul]

I would agree with alot of what Dave has said Mary, my wife was diagnosed with Puerperal Psychosis after just SIX days from birth of our daughter, symptoms were evident after just FOUR my wife had beliefs similar to yours she had dellusions and believed that her dead relatives were talking to her in her sleep and were moving objects in the house like bottles and sterilising equipment i.e they were moved for our baby to help, But 'Every' case is different and that applies to you, the medication seems like its helping you understand your illness which was what helped my wife who is now well on the way to recovery. She is currently going through the depressive phase which evidence suggests is the last bit before full recovery but like i say, every one is different, all the best to you & your recovery