According to a study published by the American Academy of Neurology, pregnant individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a significantly higher risk of developing mental illnesses both during and after pregnancy compared to those without MS.
The research, which analyzed data from 894,852 pregnant individuals over 15 years, revealed that 42% of pregnant people with MS experienced mental health issues during pregnancy, which increased to 50% in the first year after giving birth. In comparison, only 30% of people without MS had mental health issues during pregnancy, rising to 38% after birth.
Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, the study’s lead author, emphasized that understanding mental health challenges for pregnant individuals with MS is crucial, as it can affect both the parents and their children.
The study found that new mental illness diagnoses affected 8% of people with MS during pregnancy and 14% in the first year post-birth, compared to 7% and 11% for those without MS, respectively. Even after accounting for factors like age and income, the risk of mental illness remained significantly higher for those with MS.
“These findings highlight the importance of preventive and early treatment of mental health issues in pregnant individuals with MS,” said Marrie.
Curious to learn more about how these findings could impact MS treatment and pregnancy management? Dive into the full study!
Infections in pregnant women have been linked to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, in the child later in life. But it does not seem to be the infections themselves that cause autism, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
“Our results can reassure expectant parents by indicating that infections during pregnancy may not pose as great a risk to the baby’s brain as previously thought,” says Håkan Karlsson, researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and the study’s senior author.
Previous studies have shown a link between infections in the expectant mother during pregnancy and an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism or intellectual disability, in the child later in life.
But they have not been able to say whether the mother’s exposure to infection is truly the cause or whether other factors are behind this link. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have now studied this in more detail.
The current study is based on data on more than 500,000 children born between 1987 and 2010. The aim was to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between infections in the woman during pregnancy and autism or intellectual disability in the child. Infections were included if they were severe enough to requirespecialist care and they were identified using diagnostic codes from patient and birth records.
Similar to previous studies, the researchers could see that infections that required specialist care during pregnancy were linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability in children.
But when the researchers studied siblings, the result was different. In comparisons between sibling pairs where the mother had had an infection during one pregnancy but not the other, they could not find any link between infection and the children’s risk of autism. For intellectual disability, the link was weaker when the researchers compared sibling pairs than when they compared children who are not related.
The researchers also examined the risk of autism and intellectual disability in children if their mother had been diagnosed with an infection during the year before her pregnancy. The idea was that infection before pregnancy would not be linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability if it really was the infection during pregnancy causing the neuropsychiatric conditions.
Here, the researchers could see that infections during the year before pregnancy were linked to the risk of autism to the same degree as infections during pregnancy, but not linked to the risk of intellectual disability.
“The link between infections in pregnant women and the increased risk of autism in their children does not appear to be causal. Our results suggest that the increase in risk is more likely to be explained by factors common between family members, such as genetic variation or certain aspects of the shared environment,” says Martin Brynge, PhD student at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the study’s two first authors.
Since the results were less clear for intellectual disability, it cannot be ruled out that infections during pregnancy may affect children’s risk for this condition. In any case, infections during pregnancy may not influence the risk of intellectual disability to the same extent as previously thought, according to the researchers.
The researchers emphasise that they have only looked at diagnosis of infections in general. The study does not contradict the significance of the well-established links between some specific viral infections during pregnancy, such as cytomegalovirus infection and rubella, and the risk of serious developmental conditions in the child. The researchers also point out that infections by the agent causing COVID-19 were not included in their study. It is still critical for pregnant women to follow their midwife’s advice regarding infection control.
New guidelines for pregnancy in multiple sclerosis
New guidelines for pregnancy care in multiple sclerosis, drawn up by a panel of UK experts, have been published this week.
They aim to reduce uncertainty about treatments that are safe and appropriate for pregnant and breastfeeding women with MS, and for couples affected by MS who are planning a pregnancy.
MS is usually diagnosed among 20-40 year olds, two thirds of whom are women. Around this age, both men and women might be planning to have children. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that disease modifying drugs (DMDs) should be started as early as possible. Delaying DMD treatment until after having a family can lead to irreversible disability in the long term. For this reason, it makes sense to start discussing family planning and pregnancy early after diagnosis, alongside discussions about DMDs, if appropriate.
However, there is limited evidence available to guide these discussions, and so the MS Trust and a group of very experienced health professionals set out to develop a set of consensus guidelines to bring clarity to this area. The guidelines have been endorsed by the Association of British Neurologists, and have been reviewed by a panel of MS specialist nurses, neurologists, obstetricians, midwives and people with MS as part of the development process.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the ...
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNo