(Press-News.org) Toronto, ON, January 22, 2025 – People with multiple sclerosis (MS) face a significantly higher risk of perinatal mental illness compared to those with other chronic conditions, according to a new study analyzing over 890,000 births in Ontario.
The research, published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, sheds light on the mental health challenges faced by people with MS during pregnancy and the first year after childbirth. Using population-based health data from ICES, the study found that 8% of people with MS experienced a new mental illness during pregnancy, rising to 14% in the first year postpartum. Depression and anxiety were the most common conditions reported.
The study compared mental health outcomes among those assigned female at birth with MS (close to 1,700) to females with epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, and people without these chronic conditions. The researchers analyzed mental illness before conception, during pregnancy, and up to three years after giving birth.
The first year after childbirth was found to be a particularly vulnerable period, with people with MS being 33% more likely to experience a mental illness than people without MS or another of the studied chronic diseases. Overall, half of people with MS were living with a mental illness in the first year postpartum.
"Our findings highlight the heightened vulnerability of mothers with MS to mental illness, emphasizing the need for mental health screening and early intervention, including the use of preventive strategies" says lead author Dr. Ruth Ann Marrie, a Professor of Medicine and Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Research Chair at Dalhousie University.
Key Findings:
People with MS had a 26% higher incidence of mental illness during pregnancy and a 33% higher risk in the first year postpartum compared to pregnant people without MS, after adjusting for factors such as age, socioeconomic status, and obstetric complications.
Mental illness affected 42% of people with MS during pregnancy and 50% in the first year after giving birth, compared to 30% of people without MS during pregnancy and 38% in the first year after birth.
About 1% of people with MS experienced psychosis and nearly 6% developed substance use disorders within one year of giving birth.
People with epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes also had increased risks of mental illness during pregnancy and in the first postpartum year compared to people without these conditions.
While people with MS consistently showed elevated risk, the findings suggest a broader need for mental health support across chronic conditions during the pregnancy and postpartum period.
One limitation of the study is that administrative data can only capture mental health issues for which health care services are sought, which means that the burden of mental illness among this population could be underestimated.
“Future studies should assess how the activity and severity of chronic diseases such as MS may affect mental health during the pregnancy and postpartum period, and how comprehensive care strategies can best support mental health during this period,” says senior author Dr. Colleen Maxwell, a Senior Adjunct Scientist at ICES and a Professor in the Schools of Pharmacy and Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo.
ICES is an independent, not-for-profit research and analytics institute that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of healthcare issues. ICES leads cutting-edge studies and analyses evaluating healthcare policy, delivery, and population outcomes. Our knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about healthcare delivery and to develop policy. For the latest ICES news, follow us on X, formerly Twitter: @ICESOntario
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Misty Pratt
Senior Communications Associate, ICES
Misty.Pratt@ices.on.ca 343-961-6982
END
Multiple sclerosis linked to higher risk of mental illness during and after pregnancy
2025-01-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Beyond ChatGPT: WVU researchers to study use and ethics of artificial intelligence across disciplines
2025-01-22
Two West Virginia University researchers have designed a curriculum to engage liberal arts faculty in discussions on the social, ethical and technical aspects of artificial intelligence and its role in classrooms.
Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Erin Brock Carlson, assistant professor of English, and Scott Davidson, professor of philosophy, both at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, have designed an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional program to facilitate conversations among faculty about the ...
Ultrasensitive test detects, serially monitors intact virus levels in patients with COVID-19
2025-01-22
Investigators from Mass General Brigham have found that a method originally designed for cancer detection can also identify and monitor even tiny amounts of SARS-CoV-2 intact viral particles in blood and other fluids from patients with acute COVID-19 infections, creating the potential for guiding future treatment of patients. The research is published in Science Advances.
“During the early days of the pandemic, we wanted to see if our approach for isolating small cancer vesicles could be adapted to isolate SARS-CoV-2 virus from biofluids like blood, stool, and ...
mRNA-activated blood clots could cushion the blow of osteoarthritis
2025-01-22
MADISON — University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed a promising technique for treating osteoarthritis using therapeutic blood clots activated by messenger RNA.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting roughly 33 million adults in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It occurs when cartilage in key joints like the knees and hips deteriorates, causing pain and stiffness and impeding mobility.
In a paper in the journal Bioactive Materials ...
Three rockets will ignite Poker Flat’s 2025 launch season
2025-01-22
Three NASA sounding rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range as early as Tuesday to learn more about three types of aurora — black, flickering and fast-pulsating.
The launch window is Jan. 21 through Feb. 5.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located at Mile 30 Steese Highway, and operates it under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, part of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The launches will be the first of the season. As of April 2024, Poker Flat had launched 350 major sounding rockets and ...
Jared M. Kutzin, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, named President of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare
2025-01-22
The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) has named Jared M. Kutzin, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, the Senior Director of the Simulation Teaching and Research (STAR) Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, as its new President. He was elected this month during the annual International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in Orlando, Florida. He is the first Mount Sinai faculty member to hold this position and will serve as the 20th President of SSH.
Health care simulation is the practice of using immersive and innovative technology in ...
PET probe images inflammation with high sensitivity and selectivity
2025-01-22
Study Title: CD45-PET is a robust, non-invasive tool for imaging inflammation
Publication: Nature, January 22, 2025
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: Ali Salehi Farid, PharmD, Jennifer E. Rowley, Harris H. Allen, Isabella G. Kruger, Soheil Tavakolpour, Kyle Neeley, Min Cong, PhD, Haneyeh Shahbazian, MD, Niki Dorafshani, Achraf Berrada, MS, Mohammad Rashidian, PhD
Summary: Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a breakthrough method to detect inflammation in the body using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. This innovative probe targets CD45, a marker abundantly expressed on all immune cells but absent from other cell types. ...
Epilepsy patient samples offer unprecedented insights on brain ‘brakes’ linked to disorders
2025-01-22
Certain proteins found in the human brain have long been known to be critical to controlling how brain cells communicate with each other. So-called GABAA receptors are proteins that control the flow of ions into and out of cells. As they play such a vital role in how neurons slow down or stop firing, they have become the targets of many drugs for conditions such as epilepsy, anxiety, depression and insomnia.
Yet due to technical limitations and the delicate nature of studying human brain tissue, scientists have lacked a complete picture of how GABAA receptors, and their 19 subunits, ...
Your stroke risk might be higher if your parents divorced during your childhood
2025-01-22
People whose parents divorced during their childhood may be at a greater risk of stroke later in life, according to a new study published January 22, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Esme Fuller-Thomson of University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
Each year, approximately 795,000 individuals in the U.S. have a stroke. Previous work has established many sociodemographic risk factors for stroke, as well as connections between adverse childhood events and stroke. In the new study, researchers looked specifically at the ...
Life satisfaction measurement tool provides robust information across nations, genders, ages, languages
2025-01-22
Data on almost 57,000 people from 65 countries suggests that the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)—a widely used research tool—generally holds up well when applied across diverse groups of people, underscoring its potential value in research and policymaking. Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 22, 2025.
Life satisfaction is linked to a broad range of life areas, such as physical health, employment, and mortality. The SWLS is a questionnaire that measures an individual’s life ...
Adult children of divorced parents at higher risk of stroke
2025-01-22
TORONTO, ON – A recent study by researchers from the University of Toronto, Tyndale University and the University of Texas at Arlington found that older adults are at greater risk of having a stroke if they experienced their parents divorcing during childhood.
Among Americans aged 65 and older, one in nine whose parents had divorced reported that they had been diagnosed with a stroke, compared to one in 15 of those whose parents had not divorced during their childhood.
“Our study indicates that ...