Early in the history of medicine, it was recognized that severe mental illness sometimes started abruptly in the days after childbirth, later known as postpartum psychosis or puerperal psychosis. Gradually, it became clear that this was not a single and unique phenomenon, but a group of at least twenty distinct disorders.Psychosis implies the presence of manic symptoms, stupor or catatonia, perplexity, confusion, disorders of the will and self, delusions and/or hallucinations. Psychiatric disorders that lack these symptoms are excluded; depression, however severe, is not included, unless there are psychotic features. Of this group of psychoses, postpartum bipolar disorder is overwhelmingly the most common in high-income nations. Postpartum bipolar disorder
Signs and symptoms
Almost every symptom known to psychiatry occurs in these mothers – every kind of delusion including the rare delusional parasitosis, delusional misidentification syndrome, Cotard delusion, erotomania, the changeling delusion, denial of pregnancy or birth, command hallucinations, disorders of the will and self, catalepsy and other symptoms of catatonia, self-mutilation and all the severe disturbances of mood. In addition, literature from the 18th century also describes symptoms not generally recognized, such as rhyming speech, enhanced intellect, and enhanced perception.As for collections of symptoms (syndromes), about 40% have puerperal mania, with increased vitality and sociability, reduced need for sleep, rapid thinking and pressured speech, euphoria and irritability, loss of inhibition, violence, recklessness and grandiosity (including religious and expansive delusions); puerperal mania is considered to be particularly severe, with highly disorganized speech, extreme excitement and eroticism.Another 25% have an acute polymorphic (cycloid) syndrome.
Methylscopolamine or methscopolamine, usually provided as the bromide or nitrate salt, is an oral medication used along with other medications to treat peptic ulcers by reducing stomach acid secretion. Proton pump inhibitors and antihistamine medications have made this use obsolete. It can also be used for stomach or intestinal spasms, to reduce salivation, and to treat motion sickness. Methscopolamine is also commonly used as a drying agent, to dry up post-nasal drip, in cold, irritable bowel syndrome and allergy medicationsMethscopolamine, a methylated derivative of scopolamine, is a muscarinic antagonist structurally similar to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Its mechanism of action involves blocking the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. It was patented in 1902 and approved for medical use in 1947. Methscopolamine is an FDA-approved analog to hyoscine butylbromide. Brand names
Brand names include Extendryl, AlleRx, Rescon, Pamine. == References ==