‘If you could have the next Prozac, that’s intoxicating’: Sage’s postpartum depression triumph and the failure that followed

In 2015, psy­chi­a­trist Saman­tha Meltzer-Brody saw an un­be­liev­able trans­for­ma­tion in a new moth­er who had been ad­mit­ted to her psy­chi­a­try clin­ic. With­drawn and hav­ing sui­ci­dal thoughts, the woman was in­fused with an ex­per­i­men­tal drug. With­in 24 hours, she bright­ened and was eat­ing, talk­ing and smil­ing.

“It was like when you come home from your sum­mer va­ca­tion, and your flow­ers are all dried up and wilt­ed,” said Meltzer-Brody, a re­searcher and chair of psy­chi­a­try at the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Chapel Hill. “Then they get a great soak­ing of wa­ter, and every­body perks up.”

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