Raab, G. & Barbour, R. (2010) SLS Research Working Paper 6. Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland: Edinburgh/St Andrews, 14 January 2010. [SLS]

Other information:
Abstract:

This study has investigated post-partum psychosis by linking hospital admissions with a psychotic diagnosis in the postnatal period to women members of the Scottish Longitudinal Study who gave birth between the 1991 census and the end of follow-up (2007). Admission rates were found to be towards the lower end of what has been found in comparable studies elsewhere, mainly in Scandinavia. The overall admission rate in the 3 months after a birth was 0.47 per 1000 births (95% confidence interval 0.29 to 0.74). Rates were much higher in those with a previous psychotic hospital admission at 1 in 10 births in the 3 months post- partum and 1 in 5 in the nine months post-partum. Those with a previous psychotic hospitalisation accounted for over 70% of all cases identified. There was no evidence that rates varied by parity or by the age of the mother, but increased rates were found for births that were registered by the mother alone rather than jointly by both parents, for mothers from the most deprived areas and those from households where the head could not have a social class assigned, most often because they had never worked.

Download output document: SLS Research Working Paper 6 (PDF 166KB)
Output from project: 2007_007