In carriers and heterozygotes, encephalopathy can develop in pregnancy or the puerperium. Cases have been described in carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1, argino-succinate synthetase and ornithine carbamoyltransferase deficiency. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis
The most recent form of organic childbearing psychosis to be described is encephalitis associated with antibodies to the NMDA receptor; these women often have ovarian teratomas. A Japanese review found ten reported during pregnancy and five after delivery. Other organic psychoses with a specific link to childbearing
Sydenhams chorea, of which chorea gravidarum is a severe variant, has a number of psychiatric complications, which include psychosis. This usually develops during pregnancy, and occasionally after the birth or abortion. Its symptoms include severe hypnagogic hallucinations (hypnagogia), possibly the result of the extreme sleep disorder. This form of chorea was caused by streptococcal infections, which at present respond to antibiotics; it still occurs as a result of systemic lupus or anti-phospholipid syndromes. Only about 50 chorea psychoses have been reported, and only one this century; but it could return if the streptococcus escapes control. Alcohol withdrawal states (delirium tremens) occur in addicts whose intake has been interrupted by trauma or surgery; this can happen after childbirth. Postpartum confusional states have also been reported during withdrawal from opium and barbiturates.
Although its frequency in nations with excellent obstetric services has fallen below 1/500 pregnancies, it is still common in many other countries. The primary pathology is in the placenta, which secretes an anti-angiogenic factor in response to ischaemia, leading to endothelial dysfunction. In fatal cases, there are arterial lesions in many organs including the brain. This is the second most frequent organic psychosis, and the second to be described. Psychoses occur in about 5% of cases, and about 240 detailed cases have been reported. It particularly affects first time mothers. Seizures may begin before, during or after labour, but the onset of psychosis is almost always postpartum. These mothers usually experience delirium but some have manic features. The duration is remarkably short, with a median duration of 8 days. This, together with the absence of a family history and of recurrences, contrasts with puerperal bipolar/cycloid psychoses. After recovery, amnesia and sometimes retrograde memory loss may occur, as well as other permanent cerebral lesions such as dysphasia, hemiplegia or blindness. A variant was described by Donkin . He had been trained by Simpson (one of those who first recognized the importance of albuminuria) in Edinburgh, and recognized that some cases of eclamptic psychosis occurred without seizures; this explains the interval between seizures (or coma) and psychosis, a gap that has occasionally exceeded 4 days: seizures and psychosis are two different consequences of severe gestosis.