Mother-Infant Bonding in Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Furkan Bahadır Alptekin; Buket Belkız Güngör; Nalan Öztürk; Nazan Aydin

doi:10.29399/npa.27896

Mother-Infant Bonding in Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2022 Aug 19;59(3):183-187. doi: 10.29399/npa.27896. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Furkan Bahadır Alptekin¹, Buket Belkız Güngör², Nalan Öztürk², Nazan Aydin³

Affiliations

¹ Kurtalan State Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Siirt, Turkey.
² Bakırköy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Department of Psychiatry, İstanbul, Turkey.
³ Üsküdar University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey.

Abstract

Introduction: The quality of mother-infant bonding might play a role in future psychopathologies of the infant. The present study aims to compare the mother-infant bonding in mothers with remitted bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy mothers.

Methods: We included 51 mothers who have bipolar disorder in remission and 53 healthy mothers during postpartum one-year period. All participants were interviewed with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV). Young Mania Rating Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were given to the patient group to evaluate depressive and manic symptoms. Mother-infant bonding in both groups were evaluated with the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ).

Results: There was no significant difference in PBQ scores between the bipolar group and the control group. Age was negatively correlated with PBQ scores in the patient group.

Conclusion: Women with bipolar disorder can develop healthy bonding patterns with their babies, during remission.

Keywords: Attachment; bipolar disorder; mother-infant bonding; remission.