Key Takeaways
Extended Takeaways
- OCD burden was highest early after delivery: point prevalence rose from 2.6% (95% CI 0.4–4.8) at 6 weeks prior to delivery to 8.3% (95% CI 5.4–11.2) at 10 weeks postpartum, peaking at approximately 8 weeks postpartum at 8.7% (95% CI 5.6–11.7).
- If a patient does not meet full OCD criteria in pregnancy, risk remains substantial after birth: the incidence of new postpartum OCD diagnoses was 4.7 (95% CI 3.2–6.1) new cases per 1,000 women per week postpartum, with the highest rate of new diagnoses occurring within the first 10 weeks postpartum.
- By 6 months postpartum, cumulative incidence reached 9% (95% CI 6–12), with cumulative incidence already at 5% (95% CI 3–6) by 4 weeks postpartum; this supports repeated assessment across the first several postpartum months rather than a single early screen.
- The postpartum period prevalence estimate was 16.9% (95% CI 14.0–20.2), notably higher than the pregnancy period prevalence of 7.8% (95% CI 5.1–12.0), reinforcing that obsessive-compulsive disorder risk intensifies after delivery.
- Symptoms may remit for some women without persisting across the full postpartum period: after the approximately 8-week postpartum peak, OCD diagnoses declined and then leveled out through the observed follow-up.
- Among 100 women who met OCD criteria at some point in the perinatal period, 60 had clinical-level onset during the index pregnancy or postpartum, indicating that new-onset perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder accounted for most identified cases in this cohort.
