Abstract

Background: A previous study of Danish medical records reported that the monthly rate of first-time psychiatric contact following a first induced abortion was greater than the rate following a first live birth but not dissimilar to the average monthly rate nine months prior to the induced abortions. The research team therefore concluded that abortion has no independent effect on mental health and the differences between psychiatric contacts after abortion and delivery were entirely attributable to pre-existing differences in prior mental health. These conclusions are inconsistent with similar studies published before and after this Danish analysis, and its methodology was arguably inferior in a number of important ways. Most importantly, there is a need to reanalyze the data provided over a longer period of time in order to account for effects that may be missed when the time periods of analyses are too short.
Method: Monthly and tri-monthly data was extracted from the original study and configured to allow analyses of the cumulative effects over nine- and twelve-months post-abortion.
Results: Across all psychiatric diagnoses, first-time psychiatric contact increased from an odds ratio of 1.12 (95% CI: 1.02 to 1.22) to 1.49 (95% CI: 1.37 to 1.63) for the cumulative post-abortion periods of 9 months and 12 months, respectively, as compared to the 9 months pre-abortion. At 12 months post-abortion, the rates of psychiatric diagnosis were significantly higher across all four diagnostic groupings and most strongly for personality or behavioral disorders (OR=1.87; 95% CI:1.48 to 2.36) and neurotic, stress related, or somatoform disorders (OR=1.60; 95% CI: 1.41 to 1.81).
Conclusions: When analyzed over longer time frames, results from the Danish data are now consistent with the larger body of both record-based and survey-based studies. Analyses of mental health effects associated with abortion should include observation periods of no less than nine months and preferably over one year in order to encompass both anniversary reactions and the exhaustion of coping mechanisms which may delay observation of post-abortion effects.