Perinatal depression linked to early deaths

WOMEN diagnosed with perinatal depression are twice as likely to die before their child reaches 18, a study has found.

Mothers who had a diagnosis of depression while pregnant, or in the year following the birth of their child, were more likely to die from cancer, heart disease, accidents and suicide.

A BMJ study of almost one million mothers in Sweden revealed there were higher rates of mortality among the 86,551 who had a first diagnosis of perinatal depression compared with those who did not.

The women were followed for 18 years and 522 of those with a depression diagnosis died at an average age of 31, and a rate of 0.82 per 1,000 years, compared with 1,568 of those unaffected, or a rate of 0.26.

Once adjusted for factors like income, education and existing mental and physical health conditions, researchers said those affected were 2.1 times as likely to die from any cause.

One in five new mothers suffer from perinatal depression, the researchers said. Mothers diagnosed with the condition were six times more likely to die from suicide, three times more likely to die in an “accident” and between 32 and 72 per cent more likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular disease.

Researchers found that suicides were “rare”, but the increase in risk was most significant. They said there was “a higher risk” of death from cancer among women with perinatal depression and “particularly among women with no pre-existing psychiatric disorder and after postpartum depression”.

They said breast and cervical cancers were the leading drivers behind the figures, and there were similar trends for heart disease and other “pre-existing comorbidities”. To check for genetic and familial links, the researchers also looked at 270,586 sisters who had given birth, 24,473 of which had a perinatal depression diagnosis, and found the same results.

Prof Dimitrios Siassakos, of University College London, said the link between perinatal depression and suicide risk is well established but “this is the first time an association between perinatal depression and cardiovascular and cancer mortality has been systematically demonstrated”.