Role of Omega-3 Unsaturated Fatty Acids in the Postpartum Depression: Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a complex mental health disorder that affects women during their childbearing years. It is a serious medical condition that occurs in approximately 15% of women after birth and has an adverse effect on both the mother and the infant. Hypotheses exist relating dietary deficiencies in a pregnant or postnatal woman’s diet may cause postnatal depression. It is unclear whether Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) are effective for treating or preventing PPD.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the best available evidence to date regarding the effect of n-3 PUFAs on the etiology, prevention and treatment of postnatal depression.

METHODS: A systematic review and narrative synthesis was conducted in order to address the gaps in knowledge. For the systematic review, a broad search of electronic databases of published quantitative literature was conducted. The narrative synthesis consists of four elements: 1) developing a theory; 2) developing a preliminary synthesis; 3) exploring relationships in the data; 4) assessing the robustness of the synthesis. Published experimental and observational studies were accepted involving women who were pregnant or who had given birth in the previous six weeks. N-3 PUFAs was the intervention of interest and PPD was the outcome.

RESULTS: Out of 181 potential articles, a total of 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. The overwhelming majority of the studies found that n-3 PUFAs had no inverse association with PPD evaluations. Significant heterogeneity was observed among included studies.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, This systematic review and narrative synthesis failed to find a significant positive association between n-3 PUFAs intake and PPD.