Women with nonorganic psychosis: mental disturbance during pregnancy.

Rates of mental disturbance during pregnancy were studied in 88 index women with a history of nonorganic psychosis and 104 demographically similar control women. The sources of information were the woman's own report at interview during pregnancy, the interviewer's assessment and, for index cases, psychiatric record notations relevant to the pregnancy period. Highly significantly increased rates of active mental disturbance were identified for index women, as compared with controls, based both on the woman's own report and on the interviewer's assessment. Most disturbed were women with a history of Schizophrenia, Cycloid, Postpartum and Other Psychoses, and only those index women with a history of Affective Illness did not differ from controls. Only one third of the index cases were in contact with a psychiatrist during pregnancy, and high rates of active mental disturbance were identified at interview even in those index women without psychiatric contact.