Maternal depression and filicide—case study of ten mothers

Abstract

This study describes ten cases of filicides committed by mothers who intentionally killed one or more of their children within 12 months after delivery. The data were collected from police and court records, forensic psychiatric records, autopsy reports, and other medical records. The mean age of the mothers was 28.5 years and of the victims 4 months. The symptoms of depression were clear: an irritable, severely depressed mood with crying spells, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, preoccupation with worries about the baby's well-being and the mother's caring abilities, suicidal ideation, or even psychotic thoughts. Most mothers had had house calls from the public health nurse or psychologist. The mothers' conditions deteriorated rapidly, and the filicide was committed when the mother was left alone with the baby against her will. The babies were well taken care of, not neglected or abused. The majority of the mothers had felt that their own parents, especially their mothers, were very demanding, rejecting, and emotionally unsupportive. All the mothers had also had traumatic experiences in their childhood or in adulthood.

Annual Research Review: All mothers are not created equal: neural and psychobiological perspectives on mothering and the importance of individual differences

“…As with depression outside of the perinatal period, postpartum depression often co‐occurs with other psychiatric disorders, the most common being generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive‐compulsive disorder, social phobia and agoraphobia (Figueira, Fernandes Malloy‐Diniz, Aurélio Romano‐Silva, Silva Neves, & Corrêa, 2009). In some rare cases, postpartum depression has been linked to suicidality and filicide (Kauppi, Kumpulainen, Vanamo, Merikanto, & Karkola, 2008; Paris, Bolton, & Weinberg, 2009). Alarmingly, studies have also shown that as many as 50% of postpartum depression cases are undiagnosed (Chaudron et al, 2005; Murray, Woolgar, Murray, & Cooper, 2003), and reasons for this statistic include lack of attention on the mental health of the mother by health care providers as well as under‐reporting of symptoms by the mother herself.…”

Risk-benefit balance assessment of SSRI antidepressant use during pregnancy and lactation based on best available evidence

“…Antenatal depression is considered as a major risk factor for postpartum depression, both of which are associated with an increased risk of suicide during the perinatal period and an increased risk of infanticide in the postpartum period (Level of Evidence 3 and 4, Table 1) [6][7][8][9][10]. Despite a widespread idea, pregnancy does not protect against depression and it may even be associated with behaviors that put mother and child at risk.…”

A Retrospective Study of Neonaticides in Shanghai from 2007 to 2013

“…Possible motives for neonaticide included altruism, revenge, undesirable or unwanted child, psychiatric disorders and accidentally manslaughter [6,12]. Postpartum depression is contributed to infanticide [13][14][15]. Maybe it is a reasonable interpretation for neonaticide, but the previous studies revealed that unwanted child was the main motive for neonaticide rather than postpartum depression [4,6,12].…”

“…Infanticides are often assumed to be linked to postpartum depression or psychosis, or other mental illnesses such as Munchausen by proxy syndrome [12][13][14][15]. The 20 offenders' mental status was normal based on the materials we used.…”