Abstract
We conducted a systematic review of the literature to determine the prevalence of mood episode recurrences during pregnancy among women with bipolar disorder. Included studies (n = 11) had wide variation in the reported proportions of pregnant women with bipolar disorder who experienced a recurrence (median = 24%, range = 4–73%). There is some evidence that pregnant women are more likely to have a depressive or mixed episode, rather than hypomanic or manic. The extant literature cannot answer the question of how pregnancy affects the course of bipolar disorder; it merely informs us of the effect of medication discontinuation during pregnancy.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. Monali Malvankar, PhD, and John Costella, MLIS, from Western University, for assistance in developing the search strategy and we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Riaz Qureshi from Western University, MSc, for the help with screening of citations in the literature review.
Funding
Kelly Anderson is supported by a New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.
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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The protocol was registered and can be accessed online on Prospero (CRD42015029456).
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Salim, M., Sharma, V. & Anderson, K.K. Recurrence of bipolar disorder during pregnancy: a systematic review. Arch Womens Ment Health 21, 475–479 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0831-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0831-4