Are prenatal, obstetric, and infant complications associated with postpartum psychosis among women with pre-conception psychiatric hospitalisations?

OBJECTIVE

To examine the associations of maternal and infant complications with postpartum hospitalisation for psychosis in women with a pre-conception history of psychiatric hospitalisation.

DESIGN

Population-based study.

SETTING

Swedish medical birth register.

POPULATION: Primiparous women who gave birth between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 2001, and who had a pre-conception history of psychiatric hospitalisation but who were not hospitalised during pregnancy (n = 1842).

METHODS

International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes were used to identify prenatal, obstetric, postpartum maternal complications, and newborn health conditions. We used multivariable logistic regression to describe the associations between maternal and infant health conditions and the odds for postpartum hospitalisation for psychosis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Psychiatric hospitalisation within 90 days of delivery.

RESULTS

Compared with women who did not have a postpartum psychiatric hospitalisation, hospitalised women were at 2.3 times higher odds (95% CI 1.0-4.9) of having non-psychiatric puerperium complications (e.g. infection, lactation problems or venous complications). No other maternal complications were associated with postpartum psychiatric hospitalisation. Although their infants were at no higher odds for health complications, the offspring of women who had a postpartum psychiatric hospitalisation were at 4.1 times higher odds (95% CI 1.3-12.6) of death within the first 365 days of life than those of women who were not hospitalised.

CONCLUSIONS

We found no prenatal indicators of postpartum risk for psychiatric hospitalisation among high-risk women, but they had higher odds of postpartum pregnancy-related medical problems and, rarely, offspring death.