Abnormally low
tyramine test values are known to be markers for vulnerability to unipolar, but not bipolar,
endogenous depression. In the present study, 37 women with recent
postnatal depression (25 major, 12 minor) and 22 puerperal controls with no
depressive disorder, all assessed by Schedule for
Affective Disorder and
Schizophrenia (SADS-L) interview, together with 17 other controls, underwent the test. No significant differences in
tyramine sulfate output were demonstrated between the different groups. Those subjects with endogenous features according to Newcastle score (n = 7) or Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) (n = 6) also had normal output. Thus, the
tyramine test does not appear to be a useful marker for vulnerability to
postnatal depression. Over half the subjects recalled that their
postnatal depression had started in the first 2 weeks postpartum. Of the total of 62 postpartum subjects interviewed with the SADS-L, ten recalled a period of euphoria in the first postpartum week, which met RDC for
hypomania and eight of them went on to become depressed postnatally. An additional patient from the total group was hospitalized with
mania.