Children Born to Mothers Maintained on Pharmacotherapy During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Abstract

Reports on hospital admissions reveal that between 2 and 10% of women entering mental hospitals suffer from a psychosis appearing at the time of pregnancy or during or after childbirth. Generally, the literature on psychiatric complications arising during pregnancy or the postpartum period indicates that almost all authors agree that the rapid and dramatic changes in the course of normal life processes frequently are accompanied by emotional reverberations. Many authors feel that a latent schizophrenia can become manifest or be exacerbated during these periods and consider pregnancy and childbirth to be immediate precipitants of schizophrenic reactions. There seems to be general agreement that persons with a history of earlier emotional and personality disorders are liable to become overtly psychotic in reaction to the stress of childbearing and childbirth.