BackgroundFor women suffering from an antepartum mental disorder (AMD), there is lack of evidence-based treatment algorithms due to the complicated risk-benefit analysis for both mother and unborn child. We aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to treat AMD and performed a meta-analysis of the estimated treatment effect on the psychiatric symptoms during pregnancy.MethodsMedLine, PsycINFO and Embase databases were searched by two independent reviewers for clinical trials with a control condition on treatment of women with AMD, i.e. major depressive (MDD), anxiety, psychotic, eating, somatoform and personality disorders. We inventoried the effect of the treatment, i.e. decrease of psychiatric symptoms at the end of the treatment or postpartum. We adhered to the PRISMA-protocol.FindingsTwenty-nine trials were found involving 2779 patients. Trials studied patients with depressive disorders (k = 28), and anxiety disorders (k = 1). No pharmacological trials were detected. A form of psychotherapy, like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (g = -0.61; 95%CI:-0.73 to -0.49, I2 = 0%; k = 7) or Interpersonal Psychotherapy (g = -0.67; 95%CI:-1.27 to -0.07; I2 = 79%; k = 4), holds robust benefit for pregnant women with MDD. Body-oriented interventions (g = -0.43; 95%CI:-0.61 to -0.25; I2 = 17%; k = 7) and acupuncture (g = -0.43; 95%CI:-0.80 to -0.06; I2 = 0%; k = 2) showed medium sized reduction of depressive symptoms. Bright light therapy (g = -0.59; 95%CI:-1.25 to 0.06; I2 = 0%; k = 2), and food supplements (g = -0.51; 95%CI:-1.02 to 0.01; I2 = 20%; k = 3) did not show significant treatment effects. One study was found on Integrative Collaborative Care.ConclusionsThis meta-analysis found a robust moderate treatment effect of CBT for MDD during pregnancy, and to a lesser extent for IPT. As an alternative, positive results were found for body-oriented interventions and acupuncture. No evidence was found for bright light therapy and food supplements. Only non-pharmacological trials on women with MDD were found. Research on a wider range of AMD is needed.

Women with severe mental illness are at increased risk of suicide in the perinatal period, and these suicides are often preceded by self-harm, but little is known about self-harm and its correlates in this population. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and self-harm, and its correlates, in women with psychotic disorders and bipolar disorder during pregnancy. Historical cohort study using de-identified secondary mental healthcare records linked with national maternity data. Women pregnant from 2007 to 2011, with ICD-10 diagnoses of schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder or other affective psychoses were identified. Data were extracted from structured fields, natural language processing applications and free text. Logistic regression was used to examine the correlates of self-harm in pregnancy. Of 420 women, 103 (24.5 %) had a record of suicidal ideation during the first index pregnancy, with self-harm recorded in 33 (7.9 %). Self-harm was independently associated with younger age (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.91, 95 % CI 0.85–0.98), self-harm in the previous 2 years (aOR 2.55; 1.05–6.50) and smoking (aOR 3.64; 1.30–10.19). A higher prevalence of self-harm was observed in women with non-affective psychosis, those who discontinued or switched medication and in women on no medication at the start of pregnancy, but these findings were not statistically significant in multivariable analyses. Suicidal thoughts and self-harm occur in a significant proportion of pregnant women with severe mental illness, particularly younger women and those with a history of self-harm; these women need particularly close monitoring for suicidality.

Objective: Disturbed sleep during pregnancy is associated with adverse obstetric outcomes and less mental well-being. In pregnant women with a mental disorder, who frequently suffer from sleep problems, it is unknown whether predominantly objective or subjective sleep quality is more affected. To clarify this, we compared objective and subjective parameters of sleep quality between patients and healthy controls during pregnancy. Methods: This observational study was embedded in an ongoing study among pregnant women with a mental disorder at the department of Psychiatry of Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We compared 21 pregnant women with a confi rmed mental disorder with 33 healthy controls (gestational age, 23-29 weeks). To measure objective parameters of sleep quality, all participants continuously wore a wrist actigraph for 7 days and nights. Subjective sleep quality was retrospectively assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and on a daily basis with the Subjective Sleep Quality-scale (SSQ). Differences in parameters of sleep between patients and controls were tested using a multivariate linear regression analysis adjusted for parity, gestational age, educational level, and employment status. Results: Objective parameters of sleep quality and subjective sleep quality as assessed by the PSQI did not differ signifi cantly between patients and controls. Daily sleep reports showed that, relative to controls, patients had a signifi cantly worse average SSQ-score (5.2 vs. 7.6, adjusted β = 0.12, 95%CI = 0.03-0.53, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our exploratory study suggests that perceived sleep quality reported on a daily basis by pregnant women with a mental disorder is worse than the sleep quality as measured by wrist actigraphy.

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The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology workgroup (OMERACT), together with the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) developed the OMERACT-OARSI responder criteria. These criteria are used to determine if a patient with osteoarthritis (OA) ‘responds’ to therapy, meaning experiences a clinically relevant effect of therapy. Recently, more clinical OA trials report on this outcome and most OA trials have data to calculate the number of responders according to these criteria. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed on the response to exercise therapy, compared to no or minimal intervention in patients with hip OA using the OMERACT-OARSI responder criteria. The literature was searched for relevant randomized trials. If a trial fit the inclusion criteria, but number of responders was not reported, the first author was contacted. This way the numbers of responders of 14 trials were collected and a meta-analysis on short term (directly after treatment, 12 trials n = 1178) and long term (6–8 months after treatment, six trials n = 519) outcomes was performed. At short term, the risk difference (RD) was 0.14 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06–0.22) and number needed to treat (NNT) 7.1 (95% CI 4.5–17); at long term RD was 0.14 (95% CI 0.07–0.20) and NNT 7.1 (95% CI 5.0–14.3). Quality of evidence was moderate for the short term and high for the long term. In conclusion, 14% more hip OA patients responded to exercise therapy than to no therapy.