Citation

Pope CJ, Xie B, Sharma V, Campbell MK. Arch. Women Ment. Health 2013; 16(6): 483-488.

Affiliation

Clinical Research Coordinator, Department of Neurology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00737-013-0370-y

PMID

23784481

Abstract

Individuals with mood disorders are at higher risk for self-harm and suicidal ideation than other psychiatric group. However, the risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation after pregnancy for women with mood disorders is unknown. This investigation assessed the prevalence of thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation during the 1-year postpartum period in women with major depressive disorder or bipolar II disorder. Data were collected between June 2005 and March 2010 from a convenience sample of women participating in a study on the course of mood disorders during pregnancy and postpartum. Participant diagnosis was confirmed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Thoughts of self-harm were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale item 10 and suicidal ideation was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale item 3. During the 1-year postpartum period, 16.97 % reported thoughts of self-harm while 6.16 % reported suicidal ideation. Further, those reporting thoughts of self-harm or suicidal ideation postpartum also reported higher levels of depression and hypomanic symptoms. We found that a number of women in our sample of women with a diagnosed mood disorder report experiencing thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation during the postpartum.

Language: en