Women diagnosed with cannabis use disorder (CUD) during pregnancy had a 40% higher risk of visiting an emergency department (ED) for an acute psychiatric disorder within a year of giving birth, a new study in Annals of Epidemiology found.

Researchers led by the University of California, Merced reviewed hospital data on more than 2 million women who gave birth in California from 2016 to 2021. They compared women with cannabis use disorder during pregnancy to women with neither cannabis nor alcohol use disorder. Acute psychiatric disorders included psychotic and major depressive disorders. The 39% figure accounts for factors like prenatal psychiatric conditions and age.

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