The Mother of Depressions

Postpartum depression is a leading cause of death among new mothers. A new type of drug offers better, faster treatment

- BY MARLA BROADFOOT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARIN YOON

Kristina Leos (left), who went through severe depression after the birth of her daughter Victoria, leans in to kiss her child.

POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION DESCENDED on Kristina Leos like a heavy fog that separated her from everyone she loved. She could see her newborn baby girl, her two older kids and her husband, but she felt like a ghost passing through their world. “I was going through the motions, but it was like I was looking down on my family,” she recalls.

Leos, 40, a nurse who lives in Midlothian, Tex., tried several different antidepressants and doses. None helped. She messaged a friend, anxious that she was unfit to be a mother. She even asked if they would take her new baby, Victoria. Although Leos never considered hurting her kids, there were times when she was driving home from work and wondered what it would be like to drive off a bridge. “I just had no fear of dying,” she says. “I didn’t care what happened.”

In December 2023, nine months after Leos gave birth to Victoria, her doctor told her they were running out of options. She was down to serious choices, including infusions of ketamine (a drug that alters the anatomy and activity of brain cells), electroconvulsive therapy or admission to a psychiatric hospital.

Then Leos remembered seeing something on social media about a new drug specifically for postpartum depression. Unlike older antidepressants such as Prozac, this medication worked on brain chemicals that are particularly affected by pregnancy. She asked her doctor about it, and they decided to give it a try. Leos began the medication on New Year’s Day 2024. Three days later her world shifted. “I was driving on the highway, and I could literally feel this huge cloud lifting over me,” she says. “And every day I got better and better.” The drug, called zuranolone and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023, has since relieved depression in thousands of women.