Bidirectional Link ID'd for Autoimmune Disease, Perinatal Depression

FRIDAY, Jan. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- There is a bidirectional association between autoimmune disease (AD) and perinatal depression (PND), according to a study published online Jan. 9 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Emma Bränn, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues examined the bidirectional association between PND and AD using nationwide Swedish population and health registers. A total of 55,299 incident PND cases were included, as well as their unaffected full sisters, and 10 unaffected matched women per PND case. Forty-one subtypes of AD diagnoses were identified from the registers.

The researchers found that women with an AD had an increased risk for subsequent PND (odds ratio, 1.30), and women exposed to PND had an increased risk for subsequent AD (odds ratio, 1.30). Comparing exposed women with their unaffected sisters yielded comparable associations (nested case-control odds ratio, 1.3; matched cohort hazard ratio, 1.3); associations were also comparable when studying antepartum and postpartum depression. Women without psychiatric comorbidities had a more pronounced bidirectional association (nested case-control odds ratio, 1.5; matched cohort hazard ratio, 1.4), with the strongest association seen for multiple sclerosis (nested case-control odds ratio, 2.0; matched cohort hazard ratio, 1.8).

"These findings have implications for research on biological mechanisms, and for health care professionals who need to be alert to the risk of PND in women with AD, and vice versa," the authors write.

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