{"id":521,"date":"2016-07-08T15:06:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T15:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/?p=521"},"modified":"2016-07-08T15:06:57","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T15:06:57","slug":"understanding-the-causes-of-perinatal-mental-illness-by-working-with-those-whove-lived-through-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/understanding-the-causes-of-perinatal-mental-illness-by-working-with-those-whove-lived-through-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the causes of perinatal mental illness by working with those who\u2019ve lived through it"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post was originally published on <\/i>MRC Insight<\/i><\/span><\/a> under <\/i>CC BY 4.0<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

More than 1 in 10 women experience an episode of mental illness in pregnancy or following childbirth. Perinatal mental illness can be severe and have significant implications for women, their families and wider society. Suicide is a leading cause of maternal death and a recent report has estimated that the economic costs to society of the women each year who experience maternal mental illness is in excess of \u00a38 billion. This is through the impact of illness on the women, but even more through the impact on the next generation.<\/p>\n

There is still a great deal of stigma around mental illness and many new mothers suffer in silence, afraid to get help for fear that it leads to losing their baby.<\/p>\n

As a clinician, I meet women with severe mental illness considering having a baby and I know what difficult decisions they must make about continuing or stopping the medication that may be keeping them well.<\/p>\n

These conditions are serious, and cause significant difficulties for women and their families. We need to find better ways to help women with perinatal mental illness and it is my strong belief that we will only achieve this when we understand what causes these illnesses. Research is desperately needed therefore \u2013 not for its own sake \u2013 but because this is how we are going to make the big leaps forward in prevention and treatment.<\/p>\n

At the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics in Cardiff<\/a> we are committed to understanding the causes of mental illness. The fact that these conditions often run in families, and genetic factors make some people more vulnerable, are important clues that give us a way of understanding the underlying biology of these disorders. We have known for a long time that genes are likely to be involved \u2013 we now have the scientific tools to find the individual genetic variants that increase or decrease risk.<\/p>\n

We are making great progress with conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and we have now identified many genes that we can be confident are involved. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of genes likely to be involved in these conditions. Each one only nudging up or nudging down risk by a very small amount. The reason to identify them is to see patterns in the genes involved that will point to biological systems that we may not have previously considered and that may be targets for the development of novel treatments.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s complicated. Very complicated. But this is no surprise. As people, we are the complex interaction of biological, psychological and social factors. Mental illnesses are no different. It is a very exciting time in psychiatric research because genetics is bringing new insights into these conditions. I am excited about the possibilities that genetics bring for our understanding of perinatal mental illness.<\/p>\n

I am new to twitter (@jonesir <\/a>if you want to follow me) and am still getting the hang of it, but when asked to participate in the weekly #PNDhour<\/a> twitter chat I was delighted. It was great to discuss perinatal mental health with women with lived experience and interested clinicians. I was expecting it to be difficult to keep up \u2013 and was worried about being able to express difficult concepts in 140 characters \u2013 but it was great. A massive thanks to @cooksferryqueen who hosts the chat and all who participated, the hour flew by. It\u2019s so important for researchers to hear from those who have experienced the conditions they study. The perspective that lived experience brings is invaluable. Its also a reminder of why the work is so important. The research will ultimately be judged not on the impact factor of papers, nor on the total grant income it generates, but on how it has made a difference to the women with whom I was \u201cchatting\u201d last night.<\/p>\n

Because the experience of all women is different \u2013 as you can see in the twitter chat below or on storify \u2013 we need very big numbers of participants in our research. In our bipolar disorder research<\/a> in collaboration with the University of Worcester we have interviewed over 6000 people with bipolar disorder. The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium<\/a> currently brings together data from over 900000 individuals to allow researchers to analyse a huge amount of data and find out more about how our genetic data relates to our mental health. Through the National Centre for Mental Health<\/a> we are now building up the number of participants with perinatal mental illness we will need for this work. In collaboration with many other clinicians and researchers around the world we aim to build the network of women with lived experience participating in research to the tens of thousands. Together we are stronger, and together we can beat perinatal mental illness.<\/p>\n

#PNDHour<\/a> connects those with lived experience of perinatal mental illness, as well as health professionals and campaigners. As part of the MRC Festival of Medical Research, I joined the weekly Twitter chat to hear people\u2019s thoughts and experiences and talk about genetics. You can see a summary of the #PNDhour twitter chat that I took part in this week below.<\/p>\n

To find out more about how you can help with research please visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Professor Ian Jones receives funding from Wellcome Trust, Stanley Medical Research Institute, Medical Research Council, Health and Care Research Wales, EU.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other relevant affiliations – Trustee of Action on Postpartum Psychosis<\/em><\/p>\n

[View the story “#PNDHour Twitter chat” on Storify<\/a>]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post was originally published on MRC Insight under CC BY 4.0 More than 1 in 10 women experience an episode of mental illness in pregnancy or following childbirth. Perinatal […]","protected":false},"author":1060,"featured_media":522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-mental-health","category-diagnosis-treatments-well-being"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7swiU-8p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1673,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/from-instagram-mothers-to-postpartum-psychosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":0},"title":"From \u2018Instagram mothers\u2019 to Postpartum Psychosis","author":"Marisa Casanova Dias","date":"22 May 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Motherhood is meant to be \u201cInstagram perfect\u201d. Full of smiles, cuddles and cute babies. But there is more to it, sometimes invisible to the naked eye. We all hear about the physical consequences of having a baby, but not about mental illness brought on by having babies. Motherhood in Real-life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-481394474.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/mental-health-united-we-stand-divided-we-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":1},"title":"Mental health: United we stand, divided we fall","author":"Professor Michael Owen","date":"6 June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Mental health is never far from the headlines these days and this is as it should be. One in four of us will suffer from some form of mental ill health in any given year. Mental illness affects people across the lifespan from children to the elderly, and the burden\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"X-ray scan of a brain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1449,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/how-can-we-better-support-people-with-a-mental-illness-who-come-into-contact-with-the-criminal-justice-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":2},"title":"How can we better support people with a mental illness who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System?","author":"Matthew Pearce","date":"6 February 2018","format":"image","excerpt":"A few months ago Hafal held a seminar looking at mental health and the Criminal Justice System. The subject is an important one for our clients: many people with a mental illness come into contact with the Criminal Justice System because of their illness. Often failure to identify them early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/02\/Hafal-logo-hi-res.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1323,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/mental-health-research-the-future-beckons\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":3},"title":"Mental Health research \u2013 the future beckons","author":"Professor Jeremy Hall","date":"16 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mental ill health \u2013 a national emergency Mental ill health is a national crisis. Every year one in four people in the UK suffer from a mental health problem, with huge impact on the individual, their family and society. Mental health problems are one of the largest causes of sickness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1236,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/could-data-science-revolutionise-mental-health-care\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":4},"title":"Could data science revolutionise mental health care?","author":"Kathryn Excell","date":"2 August 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One in four people are affected by mental illness each year, with often devastating impacts on their lives. And whilst mental illness is gaining increasing attention in the media and political debate, our understanding of what causes conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia is still woefully inadequate, with research lagging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/world-mental-health-day-mental-health-in-the-workplace\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":5},"title":"World Mental Health Day: Mental health in the workplace","author":"Amy Sykes","date":"10 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"World Mental Health Day is October 10 2017, and this year the focus set by the World Federation for Mental Health is mental health in the workplace. At Cardiff University we are taking an institution wide approach to addressing mental health and wellbeing for our staff and students. As part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adult mental health"","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}