young psychiatrists campaign against stigma

« What do you mean you’re depressed? But you have everything to be happy, you are pregnant! » The perinatal period would always be shrouded in happiness: this received idea, a romantic vision, can dissuade future mothers from verbalizing their possible discomfort. This self-censorship is far from being a detail. Suicide represents the leading cause of maternal mortality in the year following childbirth, according to a recent report from Inserm and Public Health France (45 suicides out of the 272 deaths recorded between 2016 and 2018). “A large part of these deaths could be avoided by further developing prevention »assures Lucie Joly, 37, psychiatrist at Saint-Antoine hospital (AP-HP, Sorbonne University), specializing in women’s health, particularly during pregnancy and postpartum.

When she took up her position as head of perinatal psychiatry in 2016, the young doctor observed that the medical profession pays particular attention to the newborn, but that the psychological health of mothers is often neglected, although they regularly express their distress during consultations. The situation has become somewhat more balanced since then, but even today, “very few studies look at the brains of mothers and their great vulnerability during this period. How to understand maternal depression, imaginary pregnancies, phantom baby syndrome, denial of pregnancy? »asks Lucie Joly, who then combines her expertise with that of Hugo Bottemanne, 33, a neuroscience researcher and also a psychiatrist at Bicêtre hospital (AP-HP, Paris-Saclay University). Together, they write scientific articles and books for the general public: In the brains of mothers (Editions du Rocher, 2022) and Depression in women (Editions du Rocher, 216 pages, 17.90 euros). Lucie Joly also trains midwives and nurses to identify mental disorders and works, with the psychiatry team at Saint-Antoine hospital, to create a unit dedicated to women’s mental health.

This disaster area − financing problems, job cuts, exhausted caregivers, endless consultation times, degraded care − also suffers from preconceived ideas about psychological disorders: “Psychologists are for crazy people”, “Depressives are soft chronicles”, “Schizophrenics, criminals”… How many people are reluctant to enter the doors of a psychologist, because “it won’t be of any use”? How many medical students turn their backs on the discipline, considered “the bottom of the basket” in career choices? One more pitfall at a time when the growing lack of psychiatrists and the ever-increasing care needs of the population, adults but also children and adolescents, collide, particularly since Covid. In its annual review of the 2023 mental health roadmap, the Ministry of Health and Access to Care recalls that mental disorders affect nearly 13 million French people, or one in five people.

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