Mood disorders in pregnant women and future cardiovascular risk

The link between mood disorders and cardiovascular disease in women is unclear. We studied the association of mood disorders around pregnancy with the future risk of cardiovascular disease.

We analyzed a cohort of 1,028,109 women who were pregnant between 1989 and 2012 in Quebec, Canada. We identified women hospitalized for bipolar disorder or depression before, during, or in the 5 years after delivery, and tracked them over time to identify cardiovascular hospitalizations up to 23 years later. We calculated the incidence of cardiovascular hospitalization per 1,000 person-years, and used Cox regression to compute hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association with mood disorders.

Incidence of cardiovascular events was higher for bipolar disorder (4.4 per 1,000 person-years) and depression (4.2 per 1,000) than no mental illness (1.8 per 1,000). Compared with no mental disorder, bipolar disorder was associated with 3.0 times the risk of cardiovascular disease (95% CI 1.92-4.73), and depression with 2.3 times the risk (95% CI 1.34-3.99). The risk of cardiovascular disease was elevated for bipolar hospitalization before pregnancy (HR 2.42, 95% CI 1.90-3.09), during pregnancy (HR 3.78, 95% CI 2.32-6.17), in the first year postpartum (HR 2.20, 95% CI 1.54-3.12), and 1-5 years postpartum (HR 2.42, 95% CI 2.04-2.86). Similar associations were found for depression.

We could only assess mood disorders that required hospitalization, and certain covariates might be underreported.

Women with bipolar disorder or depression before, during, or after pregnancy may benefit from early prevention of cardiovascular disease.