Mental and somatic disease postpartum: Incidence and course of mental symptoms - A 15-month follow-up study

Incidence of mental disease and of somatic disease postpartum was studied in randomly selected samples of hospitalized women. The incidence of postpartum mental disease as measured by admission to psychiatric department was 3 parts per thousand. The incidence of postpartum somatic disease was 13 parts per thousand. The ratios of affective to schizophrenic disorder, 4.5-5.5:1, were similar to the ratios of previous Swedish and British studies. Mental symptoms decreased at 10 months postpartum in the psychiatric sample but increased at 12 and 15 months. The mean score of mental symptoms never fell to the same level as the mean score of mental symptoms in the group of somatically ill patients.