The media love a good story about discovering the cause of or cure for postpartum depression. The minute any study comes out saying "Eureka! We think we've found it!" you can guarantee that it will spread across the internet like wildfire.

This week is no different. A single study of just 30 people found that the brains ofnew momswith PPD worked differently than those without it. Per Medical News Today:

"Women with postpartum depression who viewed pictures of scared or angry faces had less activity as shown by functional magnetic resonance brain imaging than did healthy mothers in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that controls emotional responses and recognizes emotional cues in others. The mothers with postpartum depression also had less communication between this area and the amygdala, the hub of emotional conditioning."

And THEN came the headline from the LA Times, Brain Biology, Not Hormones, May Be To Blame for Postpartum Depression and the relentless retweeting of it on Twitter.

I'm sorry, but I'm just not getting all hot and bothered overone study of 30 people.I don't like headlines like the one from the LA Times.I don't know if this study indicates causality or correlation or who knows what …I wish the media wouldn't overstate these things.

For a good article on this study, visit Medscape's "Potential Neural Mechanism for Postpartum Depression Identified". (Note: you might want to attend medical school first. 😉 )

For more stories on potential causes of postpartum depression, click here.