Perinatal psychiatric disorders: A clinical review

This issue of Current Problems in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Fertility addresses the timely subject of perinatal psychiatric disorders. Although pregnancy and new motherhood can be a joyous, exciting, and much anticipated time in a woman's life, for some women and families, it can be a time of suffering, confusion, and heartache. The aim of this issue is to review the definition, epidemiology, and clinical appearance of women's responses to pregnancy, which range from normal psychological responses to frankly psychotic reactions. Consequences of untreated perinatal mental illness, proposed causes of these disorders, and their treatment will also be reviewed. In addition, this issue provides a theoretic model of how the interaction of psychiatric vulnerability, postpartum hormone shifts, and stressful life events contribute to perinatal mental illness. An aim of this review is for clinicians to become better versed in identifying patients who have perinatal psychiatric disorders and to become more aware of the importance of case identification, treatment, and referral for specialized psychiatric care in unresponsive cases.