Archives of Women's Mental Health - Editor's Pick - journal highlights (Autumn 2022)
Archives of Women's Mental Health publishes the latest research and review articles on current topics in a wide range of specialty areas. Here are some of latest journal highlights handpicked by the Editor-in-Chief Anita Riecher-Rössler.
Premenstrual exacerbation of mental health disorders: a systematic review of prospective studies (this opens in a new tab)
Louise Nora Nolan & Liz Hughes
Mental health disorders can be exacerbated during periods of hormonal fluctuation (e.g., pregnancy, menopause). This systematic review based on 35 studies now showed clear evidence of symptom exacerbation during the perimenstrual phase (around menstruation) for psychotic disorders, panic disorder, eating disorders, depression and borderline personality disorder. The hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle may exacerbate psychiatric symptoms especially in a subgroup of individuals who are hormone sensitive.
Premenstrual symptoms across the lifespan in an international sample: data from a mobile application (this opens in a new tab)
Liisa Hantsoo, Shivani Rangaswamy, Kristin Voegtline, Rodion Salimgaraev, Liudmila Zhaunova & Jennifer L. Payne
Premenstrual symptoms, including physical and mood symptoms, affect a large proportion of women worldwide. In the October issue of AWMH, Liisa Hantsoo and co-authors presented new data. A survey was administered to users of the Flo mobile application (app) and 238,114 women from 140 countries responded. Of the respondents, many reported that premenstrual symptoms interfered with their everyday life each menstrual cycle. They especially suffer from premenstrual food cravings, mood changes, and fatigue.
I would fortunately from this study we cannot really say how many women suffer as there might be reporting bias, i.e., only those women who use the app and are interested in or aware of their PMS symptoms are likely to have taken the time to complete the questions. More studies are needed to establish true prevalence.
As Sibil Tschudin, one of our editors, states in her commentary (this opens in a new tab) this study also raises important questions about using social media in research. Social media are now very effective for reaching people but give us only information about a very selected group of people and not about the general population. We must therefore be careful, not to draw general conclusions from social media based questionnaires.
Effect of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and cannabis use on pregnancy outcomes (this opens in a new tab)
Carson Klasner, Jessica Brown, Mathangi Gopalakrishnan, Dina El Metwally, Margaret Besse & Katrina Mark
In this study in Baltimore on 256 pregnant women continued cannabis use during pregnancy was associated with more adverse childhood experiences of the mother, fewer prenatal visits , and lower maternal weight gain. And cannabis use at delivery was associated with 10% lower birthweight! This warrants further research on the physiologic effects of cannabis in pregnancy and interventions to decrease substance use during pregnancy.
Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms: finding from the International Registry of Coronavirus Exposure in Pregnancy (IRCEP) study (this opens in a new tab)
Sonia Kim, Sonia Hernández-Díaz, Yanmin Zhu, Diego Wyszynski & Krista F. Huybrechts
SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy seems to increase the risk of postpartum depression and anxiety. This was now shown by using the “International Registry of Coronavirus Exposure in Pregnancy”. Data of 3819 participants (COVID-19 positive: 771; COVID-19 negative: 3048) showed that the risk was the higher the more severe the symptoms were. Pregnant women with Covid obviously need better care regarding their mental health.
Long-term influence of unintended pregnancy on psychological distress: a large sample retrospective cross-sectional study (this opens in a new tab)
Natsu Sasaki, Mari Ikeda & Daisuke Nishi
This study examined the associations between childbirth decisions in women with unintended pregnancies and long-term psychological distress. An online survey of women selected from a representative research panel was conducted with 47,401 respondents, of whom 7162 had an experience of unintended pregnancy more than one year ago. Psychological distress was the lowest for wanted birth and increased for abortion, adoption, and unwanted birth. Abortion was associated with lower distress than both adoption and unwanted birth!