Tebeka S, et al. – The physicians aimed to evaluate prospectively the association of the number of past pregnancies on the evolution of bipolar disorder (BD). They discovered that parity was related to a higher incidence of hypomania and suicide attempt during a 3–years follow–up in women with BD.

Methods

• This investigation draws on data from the 2 waves of the National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a representative sample of the US population of 34,653 members.
• All women diagnosed with BD were incorporated in this study.
• At wave 1, the number of children and BD's characteristics, i.e. BD type, age of onset, hospitalization and suicide attempt, and lifetime psychiatrics comorbidity were surveyed.
• At wave 2, mood episode and BD's characteristics were also evaluated.

Results

• In the sample of one thousand, one hundred ninety women with BD, 27% had no child, 17% had one, 25% had two 31% had 3 children or more.
• The findings suggested that women with no less than 2 children will probably have BD I, to report hypomania and suicide attempt during the follow-up than women without child.
• It was observed in the findings that parity was not related to other characteristics of BD, nor with the severity and course of the illness.