CORRELATION BETWEEN MATERNAL COMPLICATIONS AND THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE OFFSPRING

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Children and young adults with mental disorders are twice as more likely to have experienced a complication of birth or pregnancy. Using an informatics approach, this study examines the impact of complications during birth and pregnancy on the mental health of the youth in the local pediatric population (Calgary Research Ethics Board ID: 21695).

METHODS

A data set containing physician visit for approximately 240,000 unique individuals from 1994-2009 was employed to examine the type of mental disorder associated with complications of birth and pregnancy (as a major class of ICD disorders). Additionally, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of pediatric mental disorder associated with complications of birth and pregnancy was undertaken.

RESULTS

Mothers who experienced gestational infection, disease or exposure to drugs had a 3.7-fold increased risk of giving birth to children with mental disorders. Perinatal risk factors and obstetric complications caused a 1.5-fold increased risk. Emotional violence during pregnancy was seen to correlate with premature birth. Forest plot revealed that gestational diabetes and gestational influenza were the leading risk factors. In the local pediatric population from 1994 to 2009, the prevalence of offspring born with mental disorders whose mothers experienced complications during pregnancy and childbirth increased from 18 individuals/1000 to 28 individuals/1000 - an increase by 1.4.

DISCUSSION

One serious question that must be looked into is whether it is the influenza itself that impacts the child’s mental health, or the antibiotic medication that most mothers are prescribed as a remedy for influenza that has the negative impact on the child’s mental health.

CONCLUSION

On average, maternal gestational infection, disease and drug exposure, perinatal risk factors and obstetric complications, and maternal emotional violence leads to a 2 fold increased risk of offspring being born with mental disorders. In the local population, the prevalence of mental disorders consequent to pregnancy and childbirth complications has increased by a factor of 1.4 during the 1994-2009 period in the U19 category.