� Although maternal felo-de-se after giving birth is a comparatively rare occurrence, suicide attempts often stimulate long-lasting personal effects on the family and the babe. In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers compared two populations of mothers and found that a chronicle of psychiatric disorders or substance ill-use was a strong predictor of postnatal suicide attempts.
Using the hospitalization and birth records from Washington State, USA, from 1992 to 2001, the researchers found that 335 women had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. Another 1420 women wHO had disposed birth only had not been hospitalized for a suicide try served as a control group.
After adjusting for fetal or infant death and former variables, women who had been antecedently hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were more than 27 times as likely to attempt suicide as women without this medical chronicle. Women with a history of kernel abuse were six multiplication as potential to attempt suicide, while psychiatric hospitalization and substance abuse together increased the risk by 11 times.
Writing in the article, Katherine A. Comtois, PhD, lead tec from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Washington School of Medicine, states, "In the current study, we focused on preexisting psychiatric risk factors for postpartum suicide attempts resulting in hospitalization. Most importantly, a prior psychiatrical or substance use diagnosis among postpartum women significantly increased the risk of a serious postpartum self-destruction attempt. One implication of this study is that screening for past story of psychiatric and substance use diagnoses as part of number prenatal maintenance may be a means of identifying women at high risk of postnatal suicide attack, although a recent recapitulation of antenatal screening for depression cited insufficient evidence to recommend screening as a means to meliorate outcomes."
A recent passport from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggested covering for psychosocial risk factors, including depression during prenatal care. This article emphasizes the want for more careful followup of postpartum women with current or past psychiatric diagnoses or substance employment. The authors continue, "Future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of screening for psychiatric and substance purpose disorders on decreasing untoward outcomes such as self-annihilation attempts during the postnatal period. If found to be effective, such interventions may keep the withering impact associated with postnatal suicide effort."
"Psychiatric risk factors associated with postpartum suicide attack in Washington State, 1992-2001"
Katherine A. Comtois, PhD; Melissa A. Schiff, MD, MPH; and David C. Grossman, MD, MPH.
American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 199, Issue 2 (August 2008).
Click here to hear Featured Article online
This work was supported by a grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Elsevier Health Sciences
More information
