Although there have been numerous attempts to generate biomarkers for PPD,40–45 few studies report a high prediction accuracy. To our knowledge, the identified biomarkers represent the first prospective epigenetic biomarkers capable of predicting PPD status with over 80% accuracy from blood. Segregation of the sample by the trimester of blood collection did not appear to affect prediction accuracy. These results suggest that epigenetic variation at biomarker loci is established early on during pregnancy and may represent a latent epigenetic status in the PPD risk group independent of pregnancy. The clinical implications of this finding are that early screening of those at risk for PPD may be possible, allowing an earlier direction of clinical treatment course.
