History of concussions before birth may increase risk of serious mental illness, finds study

Adjusted for maternal age, parity, neighborhood income quintile, rural residence, immigration status, chronic conditions, history of interpersonal violence, and history of mental illness, Cox proportional hazards regression produced adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) comparing those with a record of a health care encounter for concussion between database inception and the index delivery date versus those without a recorded health care encounter for concussion.

There were a total of 7,36,689 birthing individuals without a history of concussions and 18,064 with a history. The incidence of severe maternal mental disorder was higher among individuals with a history of concussions than among the individuals without (14.7 vs. 7.9 per 1,000 person-years; aHR 1.25, 95% CI, 1.20–1.31). The mothers without a history of mental illness showed the greatest connection after being stratified by predelivery history of mental disease. 

Overall, to minimize negative mental consequences, the findings of this study highlight the necessity of early identification and screening of pregnant women with a history of concussions, as well as continuous long-term assistance utilizing trauma-informed techniques. Birthing mothers with a history of concussions may also benefit from continuous mental health screening by their main care physician in the months and years after delivery, since they are a high-risk population.

Reference:

Krueger, S., Vigod, S. N., Chan, V., Mollayeva, T., Alonzo, R., Chung, H., & Brown, H. K. (2024). History of Concussion and Risk of Severe Maternal Mental Illness. In The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Vol. 85, Issue 4). Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.24m15373