Women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) have a higher risk of perinatal depression, a study has found.
Specifically, women with premenstrual disorders (such as PMS or PMDD) were five times more likely to experience perinatal depression. Conversely, women who experienced perinatal depression were twice as likely to develop premenstrual disorders.
The bidirectional association was seen for prenatal and postnatal depression, irrespective of psychiatric disorder history. The results lend support to the hypothesis that perinatal depression and premenstrual disorders have shared causes, the authors state.
The researchers identified nearly 85,000 women who suffered from perinatal depression from around 1,800,000 pregnancies in the Swedish Medical Birth Register, between 2001 and 2018. Additional national registers were used to identify women with PMS or PMDD. These were compared to a control group of nearly 850,000 birthing women.
The researchers emphasised that more study is needed to understand the biological link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression. ‘It is important that healthcare professionals who meet with women during pregnancy are aware of the link… in order to provide well-informed advice,’ said one of the authors Donghao Lu.
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