Impact of socioeconomic deprivation on maternal perinatal mental illnesses presenting to UK general practice.

BACKGROUND

Although maternal perinatal mental illnesses commonly present to and are primarily treated in general practice, few population-based estimates of this burden exist, and the most affected socioeconomic groups of pregnant women remain unclear.

AIM

To provide estimates of maternal depression, anxiety and serious mental illness (SMI) in UK general practice and quantify impacts of socioeconomic deprivation.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Cross-sectional analysis of prospectively recorded general practice records from a UK-wide database.

METHOD

A pregnancy ending in live birth was randomly selected for every woman of childbearing age, 1994-2009. Prevalence and diagnostic overlap of mental illnesses were calculated using a combination of medical diagnoses and psychotropic drug prescriptions. Socioeconomic deprivation was assessed using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for calendar period and pregnancy history.

RESULTS

Among 116 457 women, 5.1% presented with antenatal depression and 13.3% with postnatal depression. Equivalent figures for anxiety were 2.6% and 3.7% and for SMI 1/1000 and 2/1000 women. Socioeconomic deprivation increased the risk of all mental illnesses, although this was more marked in older women. Those age 35-45 years in the most deprived group had 2.63 times the odds of antenatal depression (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.22 to 3.13) compared with the least deprived; in women aged 15-25 years the increased odds associated with deprivation was more modest (odds ratio = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.07 to 1.70). Similar patterns were found for anxiety and SMI.

CONCLUSION

Strong socioeconomic inequalities in perinatal mental illness persist with increasing maternal age. Targeting detection and effective interventions to high-risk women may reduce inequity and avoid substantial psychiatric morbidity.