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Post‐natal depression: the relevance of sociological approaches
Author(s) -
Thurtle Valerie
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.22030416.x
Subject(s) - multidisciplinary approach , relevance (law) , mental health , depression (economics) , ethnography , perception , psychology , sociology , post partum , mental illness , social psychology , psychotherapist , social science , anthropology , pregnancy , political science , genetics , neuroscience , biology , law , economics , macroeconomics
Post‐natal depression is much discussed yet definitions and approaches are not homogenous, neither in terms of the cause of post‐partum mental ill health, its treatment or how further research in the area should proceed This paper seeks to examine post‐natal ‘upsets’ and to consider the different explanations that have been and could be made of post‐partum mental ill health The paper reviews the dominant biomedical and psychological approaches, evaluating their ability to explain post‐natal mental illness The writer believes biological and psychological approaches are in the ascendance but seeks to demonstrate that they do not present a full picture Sociological approaches drawing upon stress, labelling and feminist models are examined, exploring new ways of looking at post‐natal illness The paper concludes that biological and psychological approaches do not provide complete explanations and a multidisciplinary approach is needed Most significantly the woman's own perception of post‐natal ill health is largely absent from the literature The need for an approach using ethnographic methods is highlighted