Onset of maternal psychiatric disorders after the birth of a child with autism spectrum disorder: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Background: Mothers of a child with autism spectrum disorder have more psychiatric disorders after the birth of their child. This might be because they have more psychiatric disorders before the birth, or the increase could be related to the burden of caring for their child. Aims: We aimed to calculate the incidence of a psychiatric diagnosis in women with no psychiatric history after the birth of their eldest child with autism spectrum disorder compared to women with no child with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disability and no psychiatric history. Methods: By linking datasets from Western Australian population-based registries, we calculated the incidence of a psychiatric disorder in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder and compared to mothers of children with no autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disability. Negative binomial regression using STATA 13 was used for all analyses. Results: Apart from alcohol and substance abuse, mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder had higher incidences of all categories of psychiatric disorders than other mothers. Conclusion and implications: The increase of psychiatric disorders in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder and no psychiatric history compared to similar mothers with no child with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disability might be due to a pre-existing genetic disposition coupled with an environmental trigger provided by the challenges of raising their children with autism spectrum disorder. In addition, the increased burden borne by the mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder might result in a higher incidence of psychiatric disorders in mothers who are not genetically disposed.

The relationship between maternal psychiatric disorder, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability in the child: a composite picture

“…As we did [18,20], other research groups have demonstrated that mothers of children with ASD are more likely to have a psychiatric disorder [1,3,22] than other mothers. But only one research group had established an association with ID and maternal psychiatric disorders (severe ID only) [4].…”

“…Mothers with no psychiatric history and a child with ASD or ID were about twice as likely to have a new onset psychiatric disorder after the birth of their child than other mothers with no psychiatric history [20,21]. In these studies, we showed that mothers at highest odds of a psychiatric disorder were mothers of a child with ASD without ID, with nearly two and a half times the risk [20], followed by mothers of children with ID of unknown cause with more than one and a half times the risk (Figure 1) [21].…”

“…Four publications resulted [18][19][20][21]. The first [18] calculated the odds of a child with ASD or ID in women with pre-existing psychiatric disorders and the second [19] compared the risk of death in women with both a psychiatric disorder and a child with ASD or ID, women with one of these traits and women with neither.…”

“…The first [18] calculated the odds of a child with ASD or ID in women with pre-existing psychiatric disorders and the second [19] compared the risk of death in women with both a psychiatric disorder and a child with ASD or ID, women with one of these traits and women with neither. In the third and fourth papers [20,21], we calculated that risk of a psychiatric disorder in women with no psychiatric history and a child with ASD [20] or ID [21] compared to other women. In the current paper, we aim to integrate and discuss the results and implications of these previous papers.…”

Risk and protective factors for the health of primary care-givers of children with autism spectrum disorders or intellectual disability: a narrative review

“…A plethora of research has identified poorer health and QoL in the primary care-givers (here after referred to as care-givers) of children with ASD or ID than in other care-givers [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. For example, using linked data, we demonstrated that in the years after their child's birth, mothers of children with ASD or ID had higher rates of psychiatric disorders than other mothers [9,10]. Furthermore, we also identified health differentials in mothers of children with different sub-types of ASD or ID [12].…”