title: Reproduction among 1975 Sardinian women and men diagnosed with major mood disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Disability varies in patients with major affective disorders [type I and II bipolar disorders (BPD) and recurrent unipolar major depressive disorder (UP-MDD)]. It may include reproductive functioning, which has rarely been studied systematically.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared information acquired over several years pertaining to marital/reproductive status among 1975 systematically evaluated, treated, and followed women (n = 1351) and men (n = 624) diagnosed with DSM-IV type I (n = 300) or II BPD (n = 223), or MDD (n = 1452). We compared factors between patients with vs. without children and associated with fertility rate (children/fertile years × 100), using standard bivariate methods followed by multivariate modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Childless patients were younger at illness onset, more likely men, diagnosed with type I BPD, more educated, and unmarried, but similar in many aspects of clinical history to those with children. Fertility rate ranked: BP-I < BP-II ≤ MDD, and men < women. Mood-disorder patients had 17% fewer children/person than in the comparable general population of Sardinia. Among mood-disorder patients, fertility appeared to decline in Sardinia in recent decades, more in men than women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Type I BPD was associated with lower fertility than BP-II or UP-MDD, consistent with their relatively high levels of other disabilities.
authors.affiliation: International Consortium for Psychotic and Mood Disorder Research, McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tondo
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lepri
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Baldessarini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001723:Birth Rate; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology