ReviewArchives of women's mental health2019
The maternal reward system in postpartum depression.
Review in Archives of women's mental health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The microbiota-gut-brain-epigenome axis as a novel therapeutic target for decoding postpartum depression.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Midwife-led psychosocial counseling with family support on postpartum depression and maternal functioning: a randomized controlled trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Trial
- Maternal Neuroplasticity: Understanding Brain Changes with Perinatal Depression and Anxiety in Women.Current psychiatry reports · 2026Review
- Associations between birth-related stressors, social reward responsiveness, and postpartum internalizing symptoms.Anxiety, stress, and coping · 2026Article
- Mapping neurophysiological biotypes of postpartum depression and underlying neural and molecular basis.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Psychedelic therapy and postpartum depression: priorities and prospects.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Gestational stress disrupts the neuroimmune environment in the nucleus accumbens of maternal rats.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Dopamine dynamics underlying maternal motivation and reward.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- Social reward responsiveness as a moderator of the association between perceived bonding with infants and depressive symptoms in postpartum women.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Stress and parental behaviors.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- Dopamine D2 receptor agonists prevent impairment of maternal care in lipopolysaccharide-induced postpartum depression model mice.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2025Article
- Gestational stress disrupts dopamine and oxytocin signaling in the postpartum reward system of rats: implications for mood, motivation and mothering.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mothering matters: Towards a better understanding of disrupted infant-caregiver relationships in both mother and offspring.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Review
- Supplementary approaches to perinatal depression: a review of pathogenesis, herbal interventions, and dietary supplements.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Bridging Neurobiological Insights and Clinical Biomarkers in Postpartum Depression: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Hormone Regulation of Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor 1 in the Female Mouse Brain.Neuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Gestational stress decreases postpartum mitochondrial respiration in the prefrontal cortex of female rats.Neurobiology of stress · 2023Article
- Postpartum depression in rats causes poor maternal care and neurochemical alterations on dams and long-lasting impairment in sociability on the offspring.Behavioural brain research · 2023Article
- Mitochondrial might: powering the peripartum for risk and resilience.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The experience of motherhood is most often emotionally positive and rewarding, but for many new mothers suffering from postpartum depression (PPD), this is not the case. Preclinical and clinical research has sought to uncover brain changes underlying PPD in order to gain a better understanding of how this disorder develops. This review focuses on the mesolimbic dopamine system, particularly the ventral tegmental area-nucleus accumbens pathway which has been implicated in the regulation of critical functions disrupted in PPD including mood, motivation, and mothering. Specifically, we discuss normative changes in the mesolimbic system during motherhood in both rodents and humans and how these are impacted in PPD. We also consider modulation of mesolimbic dopamine by the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin and how oxytocin-dopamine interactions regulate mood and mothering during the postpartum period. In addition to providing an overview of reward mechanisms in PPD, our goal is to highlight open questions which warrant further research.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.