While more women globally are using medication to have abortions, a University of Maryland-led study published today in JAMA Psychiatry found no evidence that a first medication or procedural abortion caused an increase in mental health medication use.
Using records from the Danish health registry, researchers looked to see whether a person's first medication or procedural abortion was related to filling a mental health prescription for the first time as a way to measure whether abortion method affects mental health. The study group had never previously filled a mental health prescription.
The study tracked prescriptions filled for a variety of psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety, following a person's first abortion. From one year after an abortion and beyond, the researchers found no statistically significant increase in mental health medication use when adjusting for multiple tests. More than five years afterward, filling such prescriptions decreased when adjusting for multiple tests.
"Counter to a common perception around abortion, the results showed neither medication nor procedural abortion caused the use of psychotropic medications, which suggests that neither method increases risk of mental health issues," said Dr. Julia Steinberg, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Family Science at UMD's School of Public Health.
