Termination of pregnancy and psychiatric morbidity.

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether reported psychiatric morbidity was increased after termination of pregnancy compared with other outcomes of an unplanned pregnancy. METHOD: This was a prospective cohort study of 13,261 women with an unplanned pregnancy. Psychiatric morbidity reported by GPs after the conclusion of the pregnancy was compared in four groups: women who had a termination of pregnancy (6410), women who did not request a termination (6151), women who were refused a termination (379), and women who changed their minds before the termination was performed (321). RESULTS: Rates of total reported psychiatric disorder were no higher after termination of pregnancy than after childbirth. Women with a previous history of psychiatric illness were most at risk of disorder after the end of their pregnancy, whatever its outcome. Women without a previous history of psychosis had an apparently lower risk of psychosis after termination than postpartum (relative risk RR = 0.4, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.3-0.7), but rates of psychosis leading to hospital admission were similar. In women with no previous history of psychiatric illness, deliberate self-harm (DSH) was more common in those who had a termination (RR 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.6), or who were refused a termination (RR 2.9, 95% CI 1.3-6.3). CONCLUSIONS: The findings on DSH are probably explicable by confounding variables, such as adverse social factors, associated both with the request for termination and with subsequent self-harm. No overall increase in reported psychiatric morbidity was found.

PIP: Between October 1976 and July 1979, 1509 general practitioners throughout the UK recruited 13,261 women with an unplanned pregnancy to a prospective study comparing the subsequent psychiatric morbidity rate in the women who underwent an induced abortion with that of the women with other pregnancy outcomes. There was no significant difference in the rates of total psychiatric disorder between women who underwent pregnancy termination and those who underwent childbirth. For example, among women who had no previous illness, the standardized rate of any psychiatric illness was 63.5/1000 woman-years for women who underwent abortion compared to 60.8-63.1/1000 woman-years for other women. In fact, the relative risk (RR) for every group was 1. Women with no history of psychosis faced a lower risk of psychosis after abortion than women with an unplanned pregnancy but who did not seek abortion (4.9/1000 woman-years vs. 11.8/1000 woman-years; RR = 0.4). On the other hand, the rates of psychosis requiring hospital admission for the two groups were similar. In women with no earlier history of psychiatric illness, deliberate self-harm (DSH) occurred significantly more often in women who underwent induced abortion (RR = 1.7) or who were refused an abortion (RR = 2.9). Drug overdoses comprised 89% of DSH cases. DSH was associated with a past history of DSH. It had an inverse trend with age. Women with no history of psychiatric illness had a significant increased risk of subsequent DSH whether they underwent abortion (RR = 1.7) or were refused abortion (RR= 2.9). These findings indicate that psychiatric morbidity after induced abortion is similar to that after childbirth.

Depression, cognitive impairment and social stress in multiple sclerosis.

Twenty-four out-patients with established multiple sclerosis (MS) who had been neurologically assessed underwent detailed psychiatric, cognitive and social assessments. Depression was associated with significant cognitive impairment and with social stress but not with degree of neurological impairment, specific neurological symptoms, disability or handicap. It is suggested that depression in relapsing-remitting MS may arise when cognitive deficits cause problems in occupational performance and impinge on close personal relationships.

Age-related changes in binding to excitatory amino acid uptake site in temporal cortex of human brain.

The binding of D-[3H]aspartate to the specific uptake site for the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate was measured in homogenates of temporal lobe cortex taken at postmortem from 76 human infant and adult brains. Binding levels were very low in brains of preterm and term infants but increased rapidly during the first 20 postnatal weeks to reach levels which exceeded those in adult brains. Linear regression analysis which compared the amount of D-[3H]aspartate binding with the age of the infant, showed a positive correlation up to 25 postnatal weeks. Saturation analysis showed that the maximum number of D-[3H]aspartate binding sites (Bmax) in temporal cortex from infants aged 20 postnatal weeks was 3 times greater than the number of sites in adult brain. The findings show that the number of excitatory amino acid uptake sites, which may be associated in part with presynaptic terminals, increase in number rapidly after birth. Furthermore, the data may indicate that a slow regression of excitatory amino acid terminals occurs during the later stages of brain development.

Frontal cortical and left temporal glutamatergic dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Glutamatergic mechanisms have been investigated in postmortem brain samples from schizophrenics and controls. D-[3H]Aspartate binding to glutamate uptake sites was used as a marker for glutamatergic neurones, and [3H]kainate binding for a subclass of postsynaptic glutamate receptors. There were highly significant increases in the binding of both ligands to membranes from orbital frontal cortex on both the left and right sides of schizophrenic brains. The changes are unlikely to be due to antemortem neuroleptic drug treatment, because no similar changes were recorded in other areas. A predicted left-sided reduction in D-[3H]aspartate binding was refuted at 5% probability, but not at 10%. Previously reported high concentrations of dopamine in left amygdala were strongly associated with low concentrations of D-[3H]aspartate binding in left polar temporal cortex in the schizophrenics. The findings are compatible with an overabundant glutamatergic innervation of orbital frontal cortex in schizophrenia. The results also suggest that schizophrenia may involve left-sided abnormalities in the relationship between temporal glutamatergic and dopaminergic projections to amygdala.