New Mothers With Birth-Related Psychological Disorders Are More at Risk for Suicide, Study Says

It is common knowledge that mothers who have just given birth are at risk of developing postpartum depression. Now, a new study has revealed that new mothers with postpartum depression have the highest suicide risk the first year after they give birth.

Over the last several decades, there have been a number of Danish women who took their lives just a year after they were diagnosed with postpartum psychiatric disorders which included severe cases of depression and psychosis. Even though the number of women committing suicide is not that high, researchers have reason to believe that there is a direct connection between postpartum psychiatric disorders and the risk suicide. The study also emphasized that health providers need to be aware of this, sciencedaily.com reported.

According to news-medical.net, the result of the study the study was done by a team of epidemiologists at Aarhus BSS, Denmark, in cooperation with colleagues in the Netherlands and the United States. The study basically states that mothers with postpartum psychological disorders are four times at risk of death either of natural or unnatural causes during the follow-up period than those mothers who don't suffer from any postpartum disorders. Also, mothers with birth-related disorders have almost the same mortality rate with those who have psychological disorders not related to giving birth. The risk of suicide for mothers experiencing postpartum disorders have been discussed before, however, there was no study to back it up. This time, the study made a comprehensive comparison with women from other categories making the researchers focus on the exact link between childbirth and suicide risk.

The team analyzed the data of 1,545,857 Danish women from the years 1970 until 2011 which was possible through the data sets maintained by different government agencies in Denmark. Their data were detailed enough to provide social scientists with a rich source of information to test their hypotheses.

Trine Munk-Olsen, a senior researcher at the Department of Economics at Aarhus BSS and one of the lead authors of the paper explained that the suicide cases are not very common, but whenever they happen they are the most tragic event, not like what people expect. "The general belief is that a new mother doesn't take her own life and that she ought to be enjoying motherhood, but the reality isn't always like that. We think it's important that women with postpartum psychiatric disorders are properly diagnosed and get the treatment they need, which possibly can prevent that they commit suicide," he added.