Perinatal Depression Is Linked with Long-Term Suicide Risk and All-Cause Mortality

Perinatal depression, either antenatal (during pregnancy) or postpartum, affects 10% to 20% of pregnant women and is linked with numerous adverse health outcomes. One such outcome, suicide, accounts for as many as 20% of postpartum deaths in high-income countries. In two new studies, researchers used a Swedish dataset to investigate overall mortality and suicidal behavior (attempted or completed suicide) in women with perinatal depression.

A total of 86,000 women with a first diagnosis of perinatal depression who received specialized care or antidepressant medication were matched by age and year of delivery with 865,000 unaffected controls. To address potential familial confounders, 24,000 affected women were compared with 250,000 unaffected…