Medical considerations in delusion of pregnancy: a systematic review

Delusions of pregnancy are associated with functional impairment and psychological distress. Previous works have focused on characterizing their etiology and identifying contributory social and cultural factors. The purpose of this review is to give an overview of the literature on medical or surgical comorbidities associated with delusions of pregnancy.

We searched Google Scholar, PubMed, and PsycInfo using the terms "pregnancy delusion," "delusional pregnancy," "pseudocyesis", and "false/pseudo/phantom/spurious pregnancy" to identify all published cases of delusional pregnancies. We included cases in which medical or surgical factors might have contributed to the delusion. We extracted the following information from selected case reports: patient age, psychiatric diagnoses, medications, medical comorbidities, somatic complaints, treatment, and outcome.

We found that 23 of 140 cases (16.4%) were potentially influenced by concomitant medical or surgical conditions including gallstones, abdominal tumors, hyperprolactinemia, constipation, a tubal cyst, and esophageal achalasia. Medical or surgical treatment was pursued in 15 of these 23 cases, followed by mitigation of the delusion in ten cases.

We emphasize the importance of a thorough workup including physical and gynecological examinations in patients presenting with a delusion of pregnancy. Clinicians should recognize and overcome potential barriers to undertaking comprehensive assessments in order to prevent delays in management and treatment of underlying medical or surgical conditions.