Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Women with a history of concussion face a 25 per cent higher risk of having severe mental health issues after childbirth, according to a new study on November 4.
The research, led by a team of Canadian researchers, underscored the importance of identifying individuals with past concussions early in their prenatal care and highlighted the need for long-term, trauma-informed support to safeguard their mental health.
“We found that individuals with a history of concussion were significantly more likely to experience serious mental health challenges, such as psychiatric emergency department visits or self-harm, in the years following childbirth,” said lead author Samantha Krueger, from McMaster University in Canada.
Krueger noted that the link “was especially strong for people with no prior mental health history”. The study noted that “concussion may be an important but overlooked risk factor during pregnancy and postpartum care”.
The team followed more than 750,000 birthing people across Ontario between 2007 and 2017 and tracked mental health outcomes for up to 14 years after delivery.
The results, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, showed that 11 per cent of women with a history of concussion experienced severe maternal mental illness, compared to 7 per cent for those without prior concussions.
Even after adjusting for various factors like age, income, and history of interpersonal violence, concussion was associated with a 25 per cent higher risk of severe mental illness.
Importantly, among women without a pre-existing mental health diagnosis, a prior concussion increased the risk of developing severe maternal mental illness by 33 per cent, compared to those with no concussion history.
