Suicide in Pregnancy: The Hedda Gabler Syndrome

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A review of forty‐seven suicides in women of child‐bearing age revealed that two women were pregnant, two were within the first year post‐partum and two falsely believed themselves pregnant. The search revealed two additional pregnancy‐associated suicides which had not been reported as suicide. Previous studies asserting that pregnancy protects against suicide would seem to be challenged by these data. Pregnancy‐related suicides are similar to each other and to the literary suicide of Hedda Gabler and fit into a continuum of pregnancy‐related depressive disorders.