Abortion and mental health disorders evidence from a 30-year….pdfVIP

The British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) 193, 444–451. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.056499 Abortion and mental health disorders: evidence from a 30-year longitudinal study{ David M. Fergusson, L. John Horwood and Joseph M. Boden Background Research on the links between abortion and mental health who had had abortions had rates of mental disorder that has been limited by design problems and relatively weak were about 30% higher. There were no consistent evidence. associations between other pregnancy outcomes and mental health. Estimates of attributable risk indicated that exposure Aims to abortion accounted for 1.5% to 5.5% of the overall rate of To examine the links between pregnancy outcomes and mental disorders. mental health outcomes. Conclusions Method Data were gathered on the pregnancy and mental health The evidence is consistent with the view that abortion may be associated with a small increase in risk of mental history of a birth cohort of over 500 women studied to the age of 30. disorders. Other pregnancy outcomes were not r