For a study, researchers sought to look into the relationship between a family history of mental illnesses and the likelihood of postpartum depression within the first year after giving birth.
In addition to citation and reference searches, literature searches were carried out in September 2021 and updated in March 2022 in PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO. Studies providing an odds ratio (OR) or with enough information to compute one for the connection between a family history of any mental condition and postpartum depression were eligible for inclusion. The studies included peer-reviewed cohort and case-control studies. Two independent reviewers independently chose the studies after evaluating their titles, abstracts, and complete texts. The MOOSE checklist was used for reporting. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used by two reviewers to independently extract predetermined data and determine the bias risk of eligible research. In a meta-analysis, data were combined using a random-effects model. Using meta-regression, subgroup, and sensitivity analyses, heterogeneity was examined. A funnel plot was used to explore publication bias, and the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) method was utilized to assess the overall certainty of the results. The combined link between postpartum depression and a family history of mental diseases served as the study’s main finding.
A total of 26 studies with data on 100,877 women were considered. In a meta-analysis, it was found that mothers with a family history of psychiatric disorders had a higher OR of developing postpartum depression (OR, 2.08; 95% CI, 1.67-2.59; I2 = 57.14%), which corresponds to a risk ratio of 1.79 (95% CI, 1.52-2.09), assuming a 15% prevalence of postpartum depression in the general population. Analyses of subgroups, sensitivity, and meta-regression agreed with the main results. According to GRADE, the overall level of evidence’s certainty was rated as moderate.
According to the study, moms with a family history of any mental condition had an almost 2-fold greater chance of getting postpartum depression than mothers who didn’t.
Reference: jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2795506
