The following is a summary of “Postpartum Depression in Reproductive-Age Women With and Without Rheumatic Disease: A Population-Based Matched Cohort Study,” published in the October 2023 issue of Rheumatology by Shridharmurthy et al.

Researchers examined postpartum depression (PPD) risk in women with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to a matched population without rheumatic disease (RD).

They analyzed the 2013-2018 IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database. Pregnant women were identified with axSpA, PsA, or RA and used the delivery date as the index date. The sample included women aged ≤ 55, enrolled continuously for ≥ 6 months before their last menstrual period and during pregnancy. Each patient was matched with 4 individuals without RD, considering maternal age at delivery, prior depression history, and depression duration before delivery. Cox frailty proportional hazards models were used to estimate the crude and adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% CI for incident postpartum depression within 1 year in women with axSpA, PsA, or RA (axSpA/PsA/RA cohort) compared to the matched non-RD comparison group.

The results showed 2,667 women with axSpA, PsA, or RA and 10,668 patients without RD. The median follow-up time in days was 256 (IQR 93-366) for the axSpA/PsA/RA cohort and 265 (IQR 99-366) for the matched non-RD comparison group. The development of PPD was more common in the axSpA/PsA/RA cohort (17.2%) compared to the matched non-RD comparison group (12.8%), with an adjusted aHR of 1.22 and a 95% CI of 1.09-1.36.

They concluded that women with axSpA, PsA, or RA are at increased risk of postpartum depression.

Source: jrheum.org/content/50/10/1287