Risk of postpartum psychosis after IVF treatment: A nationwide case-control study

Abstract

STUDY QUESTION Is the risk of postpartum psychosis (PPP) increased in women who give birth after IVF treatment compared to after spontaneous conception? SUMMARY ANSWER The risk of PPP is not higher in the group of women who give birth after IVF treatment compared with women who give birth after spontaneous conception. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Women who conceive using IVF treatment can experience higher levels of pregnancy-specific distress and are at increased risk of pre-eclampsia, an immune-related condition which in turn has been linked to PPP, as well as other pregnancy and delivery complications, which also serve as PPP risk factors. It is not known whether the risk of PPP is increased in women who have conceived using IVF treatment. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION A nationwide, register-based, case-control study of all primiparous women who had given birth after IVF treatment between 1988 and 2012. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Information about 10 412 women was collected from the Swedish IVF register. A control group of women who had given birth after spontaneous conception was selected from the Swedish Medical Birth Register (n = 18 624). PPP diagnoses, identified using ICD-10 diagnostic codes F20-31 and F531 the first year postpartum, were collected from the National Patient Register. Associations between PPP and IVF/spontaneous conception were evaluated using chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses while controlling for known risk factors of PPP. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE There were no differences in PPP prevalence between the IVF group and the control group (0.3%, n = 29 versus 0.4%, n = 77) in the chi-square analysis (P = 0.169) or the multiple logistic regression analyses (P = 0.646; odds ratio (OR): 1.178; 95% CI: 586-2.365). No associations between pregnancy or delivery complications and PPP were found. A history of any psychiatric disorder (P < 0.001; OR = 40.7; 95% CI = 23.9-69.5), or specifically a psychotic (P < 0.001; OR = 324.1; 95% CI = 131.3-800.0), bipolar (P < 0.001; OR = 516.1; 95% CI = 264.3-1008.1), depressive (P < 0.001; OR = 27.5; 95% CI = 16.2-46.5), anxiety (P < 0.001; OR = 12.9; 95% CI = 7.4-22.6) or personality disorder (P < 0.001; OR = 27.3; CI = 11.8-63.0), all significantly increased the risk of PPP. LIMITATIONS REASONS FOR CAUTION PPP is a rare condition, hence the number of individuals was small. Since all women for whom information was available from all registers were included, it was not possible to further increase the power of the study using this design. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Since this study is the first to examine risk of PPP after IVF treatment, more studies are needed to verify these results. The generalizability is restricted to primiparous women in western countries. This study confirms the results of previous studies in showing a history of mental illness to be the major risk factor for PPP.