The treatment of depression is complicated and time-consuming. It can take several weeks to find the right medication for each patient. Postpartum depression is also common, affecting up to 20 percent of new mothers within the first six weeks following childbirth.
Zuranolone or Zurzuvae was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 4. It is used to treat postpartum depressive disorder. The drug was developed by Massachusetts biotechs Sage Therapeutics, Biogen and Biogen. It is an oral pill that women can take for 14 consecutive days.
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“It’s amazing that we are starting to think about postpartum depression more and more, and starting to create novel treatments that for a long time went under recognized,” says Dr. Samantha Latorre, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the zuranolone studies.
The FDA only approved the drug for treating postpartum. The FDA only announced that it had approved the drug for post partum, but did not give any further information.
