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Counseling As Effective As Prozac for Postpartum Depression

LONDON (Reuter) - Counseling works just as well as Prozac in treating post-natal depression, British doctors report.

A study of 61 women in northern England showed new mothers should be free to choose whether they get drugs for the "baby blues," Louis Appleby and colleagues at the University of Manchester's Withington hospital said.

The women all got at least one session of counseling and then some were given Prozac (Eli Lilly and Co's fluoxetine) and some were given more counseling sessions. Two more groups got counseling and either a placebo or Prozac.

"Highly significant improvement was seen in all four treatment groups," Appleby's group wrote in a report in the British Medical Journal.

"The improvement in the group receiving fluoxetine was significantly greater than in those receiving placebo," they added. "The improvement after six sessions of counseling was significantly greater than after a single session."

But adding Prozac to counseling did not improve the outcome, they added. "There seems to be no advantage in receiving both."

Post-natal depression affects between eight and 15 percent of mothers in the first few months after childbirth, but there have been few trials studying the best treatment for it.