Onset of maternal psychiatric disorders after the birth of a child with autism spectrum disorder: A retrospective cohort study.
Having a child with autism doubles to triples a mother’s chance of developing her first-ever psychiatric disorder, so screen every new autism family for maternal depression and anxiety.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fairthorne et al. (2016) looked at medical records of two groups of moms. One group had a child later diagnosed with autism. The other group had neurotypical children.
They counted how many moms in each group got a new psychiatric diagnosis after the baby was born. No mom had any mental-health history before birth.
What they found
Moms of children with autism were far more likely to receive a first-time diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders. The risk stayed high for years after the birth.
In plain words, the autism diagnosis itself seemed to trigger new mental-health problems in previously healthy mothers.
How this fits with other research
Koegel et al. (2014) had already shown that moms of kids with autism often have PTSD symptoms. Jenny et al. move the story forward: the stress can grow into full-blown clinical disorders that start after the child is born.
Williams et al. (2010) and Hagopian et al. (2005) also found higher depression in moms of preschoolers with autism. Those studies measured feelings; Jenny et al. confirm actual new medical diagnoses, tightening the link between autism in the child and later mental-health care for the mother.
Carr et al. (2013) and Cohn et al. (2007) show the stress keeps rising as the child becomes a teen or adult. Jenny et al. mark the starting line: the trouble often begins right after birth.
Why it matters
If you intake a new client with autism, ask about Mom’s mental health even if she has no history. A quick depression or anxiety screen takes five minutes and can open the door to needed care. When Mom feels better, she can run programs at home and the whole family wins.
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02At a glance
03Original 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.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016 · doi:10.1177/1362361314566048