Drugs, Suicide Among Leading Causes of Postpartum Death in California, Study Finds

Drug-related deaths are second only to deaths from obstetric complications among women in California who die within a year of giving birth, astudy in theAmerican Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has found. Suicide ranked seventh as a cause of death in this population.Sidra Goldman-Mellor, Ph.D., of the University of California, Merced, and Claire E. Margerison, Ph.D., of Michigan State University analyzed the health records of more than 1 million women who delivered a living infant in California hospitals between 2010 and 2012. They found that in that period, 300 women died within a year of giving birth and that drug-related causes and suicide together were responsible for roughly 1 in 6 of those deaths. Other causes of death in the women included circulatory system disease, cancer, other unintentional injuries, and homicide.Three-fourths of the women who died from drug-related causes or suicide had visited an emergency department (ED) or hospital at least once between giving birth and dying —a finding that suggests an opportunity for screening, Goldman-Mellor and Margerison wrote.“This observation suggests that ED and hospital visits may serve as a point of identification of—and eventually, intervention [for]—women at risk for postpartum death. Although examining details of these visits was beyond the scope of this study, this finding warrants further exploration in ot her samples, including examining the nature of these interactions to identify predictors of mat...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology California Claire Margerison deaths drugs emergency department maternal death Medicaid postpartum screening Sidra Goldman-Mellor suicide Source Type: research