Peer-reviewed article
Risk of major psychiatric disorder after adolescent pregnancy: A nationwide cohort study of 149,870 girls.
Hsu TW, Li JR, Tsai SJ, Bai YM, Su TP et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study followed nearly 150,000 girls to examine whether becoming pregnant as a teenager increases the risk of serious mental illness later in life. Girls who had adolescent pregnancies were significantly more likely to develop bipolar disorder and major depression compared to matched peers without pregnancy, though the risk of schizophrenia was not increased. The findings suggest that young mothers need long-term mental health monitoring and support.
Key points
- Adolescent pregnancy was associated with 1.44 times higher risk of bipolar disorder and 1.88 times higher risk of major depressive disorder
- No increased risk of schizophrenia was found in girls with adolescent pregnancy
- The elevated risks of bipolar disorder and depression persisted even after excluding the first 3 years of follow-up
- Study included 29,974 girls with adolescent pregnancy and 119,896 matched controls
- Results remained significant after adjusting for confounding factors including family income, residence, and prior psychiatric comorbidity
Limitations
The document does not specify which country the cohort is from, making it unclear how generalizable these findings are to different contexts. The study is observational, so it cannot definitively establish whether pregnancy itself causes the psychiatric disorders or whether other unmeasured factors explain the association.
Abstract
Aim Adolescent pregnancy is a global public health concern associated with increased risks of physical health, mental well-being, and social functioning; however, its potential to increase the long-term risk of major psychiatric disorder (MPD) remains underexplored. Methods Between 1996 and 2013, a cohort of 29,974 girls with adolescent pregnancy without MPD before and 1:4 matched controls based on age, family income, residence location, and individual psychiatric comorbidity were enrolled. A Cox regression model was used, adjusted for potential confounders, to estimate the risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder (MDD). Results After adjusting for confounding factors, adolescent pregnancy was associated with significantly increased risks of bipolar disorder (hazard ratio 1.44; 95% confidence interval 1.20-1.72) and MDD (1.88; 1.76-2.00), but not schizophrenia (0.94; 0.73-1.21), compared to the control group. These associations persisted after excluding the first 3 years of follow-up, with elevated risks of bipolar disorder (1.27; 1.05-1.54) and MDD (1.61; 1.50-1.72) among adolescents with pregnancy compared to controls. Conclusions These results underscore the importance of implementing long-term mental health surveillance strategies for young mothers who experience adolescent pregnancy.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Identification and tracking of adolescent pregnancies with long-term psychiatric follow-up
- Population
- 29,974 girls with adolescent pregnancy and 119,896 matched controls (aged, family income, residence, and psychiatric comorbidity matched), enrolled between 1996-2013
Key finding
Bipolar disorder risk 1.44 times higher in adolescent pregnancy group (95% CI 1.20-1.72)