Infertility and psychiatric morbidity

ObjectiveTo assess the relationship between psychiatric disorders and infertility.DesignCase–control study.SettingFertile and infertile volunteer couples in an academic research setting.Patient(s)Eighty-one infertile couples recruited from an infertility center before fertility treatment and 70 fertile controls recruited from an obstetrics and gynecology clinic.Intervention(s)None.Main Outcome Measure(s)The presence of Axis 1 psychiatric disorders.Result(s)The occurrence of current psychiatric disorders was significantly higher among infertile subjects than among fertile controls, especially for adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood (16% vs. 2%) and for binge eating disorder (8% vs. 0).Conclusion(s)Our data highlight that a percentage of infertile patients have already developed a psychiatric disorder at the time of their first contact with a specialized fertility service. Possible applications are discussed, including the recommendation that gynecologists screen for clinical or subclinical psychiatric disorders in infertility patients and offer treatment accordingly.