{"id":74,"date":"2014-09-15T15:57:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T15:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/?p=74"},"modified":"2014-11-18T22:37:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T22:37:18","slug":"understanding-postpartum-depression-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/understanding-postpartum-depression-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Postpartum Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About 20 percent of U.S. women experience symptoms of depression after childbirth, yet little is known about what causes postpartum depression and other maternal behavior disorders.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>UNL psychologist Ming Li studies the behavioral and biological mechanisms underlying maternal behavior. His aim is to better understand the psychological, environmental and biological factors involved in postpartum mental disorders. Findings could lead to better therapies for new moms struggling with depression and other behavioral problems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageBlock\" align=\"center\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_334\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-334\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/understanding-postpartum-depression-2\/li_14002\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-334\" src=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14002-450x300.jpg\" alt=\"LI_14002\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14002-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14002-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14002.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-334\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ming Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/understanding-postpartum-depression-2\/li_14036\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-335\" src=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14036-450x300.jpg\" alt=\"LI_14036\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14036-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14036-900x600.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Studies show serotonin plays a role. It\u2019s a neuro-transmitter, a chemical that transmits nerve impulses across a synapse to a receptor in a nerve, muscle or other structure. It\u2019s widely known to regulate mood and is a common target of antidepressant drugs.<\/p>\n<p>With early grant support from the National Institutes of Health, Li\u2019s research focused on two types of serotonin receptors, 2A and 2C. His and others\u2019 research demonstrated that using drugs to increase or decrease serotonin activity at these two receptors disrupts maternal behavior in rats, a model for human maternal care. Mother rats whose serotonin neurotransmission is too high or too low spend less time tending and building nests for their young.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NIcuaQKPpjc?rel=0\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <a href=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14027.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-75\" src=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14027-450x300.jpg\" alt=\"LI_14027\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14027-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14027-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LI_14027.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Now, with a nearly $1.5 million grant from NIH\u2019s National Institute of Mental Health, Li\u2019s team is investigating reasons for the behavior change. Possibilities include decreased motivation, increased anxiety, motor impairment or disorganized behavior. They also are studying how the drugs function biologically, such as where and how they act in the brain to change serotonin activity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the one hand, our work can help us understand the causes of postpartum mental disorders, its physiology, such as depression, anxiety, psychosis or even memory impairment,\u201d Li said. \u201cBut another side is that we are studying drugs, and hopefully we will be able to provide some information for new drug therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Li\u2019s research also may help scientists understand the psychology behind other serotonin-related mental disorders and how current psycho-therapeutic drugs affect brain neuroreceptors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 20 percent of U.S. women experience symptoms of depression after childbirth, yet little is known about what causes postpartum depression and other maternal behavior disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,10],"tags":[47,36,48,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}