A visual timeline tool for tracking mood and medication perinatally in affective disorders

Excerpt

Women with bipolar disorder are at particularly high risk of relapse following childbirth with almost one in five experiencing an episode of postpartum psychosis following delivery (Di Florio et al. 2013; Wesseloo et al. 2016). Factors which increase risk for severe postpartum relapse in women with bipolar disorder are poorly understood. The majority of previous research has traditionally employed retrospective methods of assessment, and/or has only measured a limited range of potential risk factors. High-quality studies investigating risk factors prospectively in pregnant women with bipolar disorder are rare, and have predominantly focused on the role of medication use in postnatal relapse (Viguera et al. 2007). …