Women who experience perinatal depression are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in the 20 years following birth, research finds.
Research from the Karolinska Institute used the Swedish Medical Birth Register to compare 55,539 women diagnosed with perinatal depression between 2001 and 2014 with 545,657 women who had given birth in the same period but were not diagnosed with perinatal depression.
Among those with perinatal depression, 6.4% developed cardiovascular disease, compared to 3.7% among those without perinatal depression, equating to a 36% higher risk. High blood pressure risk was also found to be around 50% higher, risk of ischemic heart disease 37% higher, and heart failure risk 36% higher.
Study author Dr Donghao Lu said: ‘Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death globally and there has been an ongoing discussion about including reproductive health when assessing the risk among women.’
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