New mental health diagnoses in parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit-a retrospective review of the Military Health System database

Objective: Studies suggest that parents of NICU infants are at increased risk of mental health disorders. We sought to characterize this risk using a large database.

Study design: The Military Health System was used to retrospectively link records between parents and infants admitted to a NICU over 5 years and were matched to similar families without NICU exposure. The total study population included 35,012 infants. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between NICU exposure and parental mental health diagnoses within 5 years of infant birth.

Results: Maternal NICU exposure was associated with incident diagnoses of depression (OR: 1.18-1.27, p < 0.0001), anxiety (OR: 1.06-1.18, p = 0.0151), alcohol/opiate dependence (OR: 1.29-1.52, p = 0.0079), and adjustment disorder (OR: 0.97-1.18, p = 0.0224). Paternal NICU exposure was associated with alcohol/opiate dependence (OR: 0.78-1.42, p = 0.0339).

Conclusion: Parents of NICU infants are at risk of developing mental health disorders. Future work should identify characteristics that predict highest risk to develop effective interventions.