Bipolar Linked to Morning Sickness: Eurekalert
The Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease published an article this month linking an extreme form of morning sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum, with bipolar disorder. People were asked whether or not their mothers had extreme morning sickness with themselves or their siblings and whether or not they or their siblings had bipolar disorder, and it was discovered that the rate of people with bipolar disorder was four times higher among those who claimed that their mothers had extreme morning sickness than among those who did not. Should this correlation be the result of some causation, it would represent a completely new source of bipolar disorder. Further discussion of this paper can be found on the site Eurekalert
Commentary
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Instead, this study relies on what is called “self-reporting”. In other words, one asks people whether they or their siblings have bipolar disorder and whether or not their mothers had extreme morning sickness. What arises here is the possibility of recall bias. Recall bias means people either don’t know or don’t remember something, and that it affects the results. Recall bias is likely to be very strong in this study. First, how many people really know their mother’s history of morning sickness with each pregnancy? Second, people are more likely to be aware of their own mental health issues more than their siblings’. Just these two possibilities weaken the results.
Nonetheless, the correlation is interesting and warrants further study that involves better use of controls and more correction for recall bias. If extreme morning sickness is causing bipolar disorder, it will give us a better sense of how environment can contribute to the triggering of the condition.
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