The impact of severe mental disorders on mother-infant interaction : a systematic review

Purpose: Mother-Infant Interaction (MII) is the first dynamic relationship that focuses on both mother-infant involvement and dyadic coordination and is associated with infant development. The main objective of this review is to summarize the evidence on the quality of MII in mothers with Severe Mental Illness (SMI). Method: A systematic search for cross sectional, cohort or case control studies has been carried out in PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO and Scopus to extract studies addressing the relationship between the quality of MII and SMI. Results: A total of 15 studies with a sample of 992 women were included. Studies showed worst outcomes for MII in mothers with psychotic disorder and bipolar disorder. The impairments were more pronounced in psychotic disorders. Conclusions: There is evidence of impaired MII in SMI. Social cognition (SC) is essential for understanding and responding to infant cues, so it could partially explain the associations between SMI and interaction outcomes. The current evidence is limited due to substantial heterogeneity and methodological limitations in the studies. Therefore, such findings should be interpreted with caution.