Suicide after Ectopic Pregnancy

Abstract

To the Editor: Pregnancy and the first postnatal year are considered a period with a low risk of suicidal behavior 1 , 2 . The risk of suicide among women at this stage of life was one sixth that in a matched population of nonpregnant women. Possible reasons are maternal emotions and close contact with family members and health professionals who provide support, early detection, and treatment of patients in whom psychiatric disorders do develop. With respect to this low-risk population, attention has been drawn to a grief reaction after early pregnancy loss, 3 which can be intense in cases of first-trimester spontaneous. © 1994, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.