What’s Worse for Pregnancy: Bipolar Disorder or the Medications Used to Treat It?

In studies of pregnant women with unipolar depression, it has been shown that untreated psychiatric illness in the mother may have a negative impact on pregnancy outcomes, influencing the length of gestation and birthweight.  There is far less data on pregnancy outcomes in women with bipolar disorder.  A recent Swedish study analyzes pregnancy outcomes in treated and untreated women with bipolar disorder and attempts to distinguish between the effects of medication versus the effects of untreated psychiatric illness in the mother.