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High Risk of Psychiatric Comorbidity With Endometriosis
Women with endometriosis have a high degree of psychiatric comorbidity, according to a nationwide cohort study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
“Endometriosis is a common gynecological condition affecting women of reproductive age,” researchers wrote. “It has been linked with higher rates of depression and anxiety in small, cross-sectional, and clinical studies. Other studies have reported that women with endometriosis have increased risk of bipolar disorder.”
To gauge whether psychiatric disorders are indeed more common in women with endometriosis, researchers conducted a population-based study that analyzed data for all women born in Sweden between 1973 and 1990.
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Women with endometriosis, they found, had increased risk for a later diagnosis of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, stress-related disorders, substance use disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), compared with women without the condition. The risk was increased for women with endometriosis even when researchers compared them with their sisters without endometriosis: adjusted hazard ratios spanned from 1.56 for depressive disorders to 1.98 for ADHD.
The study also found that women with previous affective psychotic disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, stress-related disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, and ADHD had increased risk for a later diagnosis of endometriosis. Adjusted hazard ratios ranged from 1.51 for women with depressive disorders to 1.93 for women with personality disorders, researchers reported.
“Clinical practice may consider psychosocial support to women with endometriosis,” researchers advised, “and treating them from a multidisciplinary perspective.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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