Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar;56(3):429-436.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-020-01920-x. Epub 2020 Jul 11.

Preeclampsia and the longitudinal risk of hospitalization for depression at 28 years

Nathalie Auger  1   2   3 , Nancy Low  4 , Gilles Paradis  5   6 , Aimina Ayoub  7   5 , William D Fraser  8
Affiliations

Preeclampsia and the longitudinal risk of hospitalization for depression at 28 years

Nathalie Auger et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: The association between pregnancy characteristics and risk of depression in women is poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between preeclampsia and risk of hospitalization for depression over three decades.

Methods: We carried out a longitudinal cohort study of 1,210,963 women who delivered an infant in any hospital in Quebec, Canada, between 1989 and 2016. The exposure was preeclampsia at the first or in subsequent pregnancies, including preeclampsia onset time (early < 34 weeks vs. late ≥ 34 weeks of gestation) and severity (mild, severe, superimposed). The outcome was hospitalization for depression any time after pregnancy. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for maternal characteristics to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of preeclampsia with depression hospitalization.

Results: Women with preeclampsia had a higher incidence of hospitalization for depression compared with no preeclampsia (1.43 vs. 1.14 per 1000 person-years). Preeclampsia was associated with 1.16 times the risk of depression hospitalization after 28 years of follow-up (95% CI 1.09-1.23). Associations were present for mild (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.07-1.24), severe (HR 1.16, 95% CI 1.04-1.29) and late onset preeclampsia (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.10-1.25). Risks were more pronounced after the first year postpartum.

Conclusion: Preeclampsia appears to be associated with the risk of depression hospitalization several decades after pregnancy. Clinicians who care for women with mental health disorders should be aware that a history of preeclampsia increases the risk of severe depression.

Keywords: Depression; Longitudinal studies; Mood disorders; Postpartum period; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Mol BWJ, Roberts CT, Thangaratinam S et al (2016) Pre-eclampsia. Lancet 387:999–1011 - DOI
    1. Caropreso L, de Azevedo CT, Eltayebani M, Frey BN (2019) Preeclampsia as a risk factor for postpartum depression and psychosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Womens Ment Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-019-01010-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Phipps E, Prasanna D, Brima W, Jim B (2016) Preeclampsia: updates in pathogenesis, definitions, and guidelines. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 11:1102–1113 - DOI
    1. van Agtmaal MJM, Houben AJHM, Pouwer F et al (2017) Association of microvascular dysfunction with late-life depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry 74:729–739 - DOI
    1. Lopez-Vilchez I, Diaz-Ricart M, Navarro V et al (2016) Endothelial damage in major depression patients is modulated by SSRI treatment, as demonstrated by circulating biomarkers and an in vitro cell model. Transl Psychiatry 6:e886 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources