Maternal infanticide associated with mental illness: prevention and the promise of saved lives.
@article{Spinelli2004MaternalIA,
title={Maternal infanticide associated with mental illness: prevention and the promise of saved lives.},
author={Margaret G. Spinelli},
journal={The American journal of psychiatry},
year={2004},
volume={161 9},
pages={
1548-57
}
}OBJECTIVE
Although maternal infanticide is a rare event, a high proportion of cases occurs in the context of postpartum mental illness. The author reviews historical, legislative, and contemporary psychiatric perspectives on infanticide and discusses ways in which the psychiatric community can improve prevention of infanticide and promote appropriate treatment of mentally ill women who commit infanticide.
METHOD
The case of Texas v. Andrea Yates, involving a mother with mental illness who… Expand
Topics from this paper
Paper Mentions
Observational Clinical Trial
This study is looking at genetic, biological, and environmental causes and how all three may
work together to cause postpartum mood episodes. Participants will have psychiatric… Expand
| Conditions | Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Postpartum Depression, (+1 more) |
|---|
Blog Post
259 Citations
Infanticide and American criminal justice (1980–2018)
- Psychology, Medicine
- Archives of Women's Mental Health
- 2018
It is suggested that it is time to invite psychiatrists and psychologists as clinicians and scientists to partner with legal representatives in the courtroom in order to determine laws based on psychiatric facts and not conjecture. Expand
Infanticide: contrasting views
- Medicine
- Archives of Women’s Mental Health
- 2005
This work illustrates the intricate relationship between a society’s construction of parenthood and mothering, and its experience of infanticide, and investigates culture specific attitudes towards causes, facilitation, and punishment of this tragic cause of infant mortality. Expand
Factors affecting juror decision-making in infanticide and insanity cases
- Psychology
- 2010
LITERATURE REVIEW Infanticide, the murder of a child aged between 24 hours and 12 months, dates
back to Ancient Greece, where it was primarily used for population control. It
still occurs in modem… Expand
Recurrent post partum depression and infanticide. A case report
- Medicine
- 2017
This case is presented of a 40 years old women diagnosed with post partum depression who committed infanticide after the birth of her seventh child who had a history of psychiatric disorder in relation with previous pregnancies. Expand
Understanding maternal mental illness: psychiatric autopsy of a maternal death.
- Medicine
- Singapore medical journal
- 2012
The case highlights the burden of maternal mental illness in the community as well as the need for resources and services to care well for mothers, and a better understanding of its presentation and risk factors can reduce morbidity and mortality. Expand
Ambivalence toward mothers who kill: an examination of 45 U.S. cases of maternal neonaticide.
- Medicine
- Behavioral sciences & the law
- 2010
Public opinion about neonaticide (the killing of a newborn within the first 24 hours of life) has varied across time and cultures. Some nations have passed legislation on behalf of maternal offenders… Expand
MOTHERS WHO KILL THEIR CHILDREN A literature review
- Psychology
- 2008
Maternal filicide, the murder of a child by its mother, is a complex phenomenon with various causes and characteristics. Research, by means of the development of several classification systems and in… Expand
Maternal Neonaticide Following Traumatic Childbirth
- Medicine
- International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
- 2011
PTSD is a viable mitigating factor to be examined in legal defenses of infanticide either in isolation or in conjunction with other factors, and is presented as a case of maternal neonaticide that was directly linked to PTSD without any other concomitant mental disorder. Expand
Reflections on the care delivered in a suspected case of infanticide.
- Medicine
- Revista latino-americana de enfermagem
- 2007
This study aimed to find support in scientific literature about infanticide, point out an interdisciplinary health team's affliction and uncertainties when faced with this kind of case and suggest strategies for dealing with these feelings and their possible consequences in dealing with this case. Expand
Treatment Challenges in Schizophrenia in The Perinatal Period and Infanticide
- Psychology
- 2010
Although women with schizophrenia may have lower fertility rates than women in the general population, the majority of women with psychotic disorders do have children (2). They have a higher risk of… Expand
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 53 REFERENCES
Infanticide. Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers Who Kill
- Psychology
- Archives of Women's Mental Health
- 2003
Part I: Epidemiology and Historical Legal Statutes. A brief history of infanticide and the law. Epidemiology of infanticide. Part II: Biopsychosocial and Cultural Perspectives on Infanticide.… Expand
Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom"
- Psychology
- 2001
A special kind of horror is reserved for mothers who kill their children. Cases such as those of Susan Smith, who drowned her two young sons by driving her car into a lake, and Melissa Drexler, who… Expand
Postpartum psychiatric illness : a picture puzzle
- Psychology
- 1992
In the USA, severe psychiatric illness after childbirth strikes one woman for every 1000 births, or about 3500 women each year. An unrecorded number of new mothers experience lesser degrees of… Expand
Underascertainment of child abuse mortality in the United States.
- Medicine
- JAMA
- 1999
Using medical examiner data, it is found that significant underascertainment of child abuse homicides in vital records systems persists despite greater societal attention to abuse fatalities. Expand
Motherhood and mental health
- Psychology
- 1996
Maternal mental health is of vital importance. Many mothers caring for infants and small children suffer depression and other forms of mental illness. It is essential that they are understood, as a… Expand
Mothers Who Kill: Coming to Terms With Modern American Infanticide
- Psychology
- 1996
plans on their own. Instead, upon discovering that they are pregnant, most girls seek the assistance of a parent, friend, or counselor.279 Equipped with this support, the girls decide to have the… Expand
Risk factors for infant homicide in the United States.
- Medicine
- The New England journal of medicine
- 1998
Childbearing at an early age was strongly associated with infant homicide, particularly if the mother had given birth previously, and the findings may have implications for prevention. Expand
Epidemiology of puerperal psychoses.
- Psychology, Medicine
- The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
- 1987
Investigation of the temporal relationship between childbirth and psychiatric contact in a population of 470 000 people over a 12-year period concluded that puerperal psychoses are manic depressive illnesses and unrelated to schizophrenia. Expand
Murder of the newborn: a psychiatric review of neonaticide.
- Psychology, Medicine
- The American journal of psychiatry
- 1970
The author believes that the killing of a newborn baby is a separate entity from other filicides, differing in regard to the diagnosis, motives, and legal disposition of the murderer. Whereas most… Expand
Postpartum Psychiatric Syndromes
- Psychology, Medicine
- Psychosomatic medicine
- 1968
A study of 100 postpartum patients pointed to a syndrome comprised of feelings of shame, helplessness, and confusion, which may be accentuated in the puerperium by the neonate's incapacity to specify guidelines for his care. Expand