Mixed mania associated with cessation of breastfeeding

Kristen A. Schmidt, Brian A. Palmer, Mark A. Frye

This case chronicles the unique presentation of psychotic mixed mania in a female 5 months after parturition and 1 week following breastfeeding discontinuation, highlighting a rarely recognized mania risk factor that is temporally delayed from parturition: breastfeeding discontinuation. A 25-year-old G1P1 female with a past psychiatric history of a depressive episode in adolescence presented to the Emergency Department with her 5-month-old daughter, fiancée, and family 1 week after breastfeeding cessation. She endorsed sleep-deprived energy enhancement, unfulfilled goal-oriented productivity, hyper-talkativeness, hyper-sexuality and increased nicotine use. Concurrent depressive symptoms included hopelessness, worthlessness, poor concentration, lack of appetite, and ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts that she may kill herself or her child. She exhibited pressured speech, affective lability, expansiveness, distractibility, and tangential, grandiose, delusional self-referential content. Transient thoughts of self-harm and harm to her child were not associated with intent. Her family history was significant for a deceased mother who had bipolar I disorder. The patient was hospitalized for 5 days and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type I, current episode manic with psychotic features with a mixed-feature specifier. Olanzapine and lithium were initiated and the patient's acute episode of mania resolved prior to discharge. This case extends the limited literature on mania following weaning and highlights the role of rapid serum dopamine rise following breastfeeding cessation in mania.