A postpartum depression pill worked in three days

A team led by Kristina Deligiannidis of the Feinstein Institutes tested zuranolone, a pill that acts on the same brain receptors disrupted by the hormonal crash after childbirth, in women with severe postpartum depression. They measured symptoms starting just days into the two-week course.

In the SKYLARK trial, 196 women took zuranolone or placebo once daily for 14 days. Depression scores dropped significantly more on the drug by day 3, the earliest point measured, and the improvement held through day 45, weeks after the pill course had ended.

Zuranolone followed an earlier postpartum depression drug, brexanolone, which worked on the same hormone pathway but required a 60-hour hospital infusion, limiting who could use it. As a once-daily pill taken at home, zuranolone was far easier to prescribe after its 2023 FDA approval, though it causes drowsiness and carries a warning against driving within 12 hours of a dose, and insurers have been slow to cover its high cost.

Relief that arrived before the week was over.