Postpartum Psychosis - Causes

Causes

These are world-wide disorders. Their incidence has been carefully measured by state-of-the-art epidemiological studies, and is somewhat less than 1/1,000 deliveries. They are more common in first time mothers. As recognized by the French psychiatrist Louis-Victor Marcé (1862), the link to menstruation, and especially menstrual psychosis, is an important clue to the cause. Molecular genetic studies suggest that there is a specific heritable factor. There is evidence of linkage to chromosome 16.