Postpartum Mental Illness: Tell Me More About Yourself, Your Family, and Your Partner

Proposed risk factors for postpartum mental illness range from psychosocial stressors (e.g., marital conflicts and poor social support) to genetic predisposition; less is known, however, about the relative influence of family and partner psychopathology on the emergence of postpartum psychiatric disturbances. In a population-based study, Danish investigators assessed the incidence of mental disorders during the first year after delivery in more than 1 million first-time parents from 1973 to 2005; psychiatric diagnoses in partners or first-degree relatives also were taken into account.

During the first 12 months postpartum, 2174 first-time mothers and 1175 first-time fathers required psychiatric admission or outpatient psychiatric interventio…