Julia Fricke ^1,2 Marie Bolster ^2,3 Katja Icke ² Natalja Lisewski ² Lars Kuchinke ⁴ Christiane Ludwig-Körner ⁴ Franziska Schlensog-Schuster ⁵ Thomas Reinhold ^2,6 Anne Berghöfer ^2* Stephanie Roll ² Thomas Keil ^2,7,8

• ¹ Unit for Municipal Health Strategies for the City of Freiburg and the District of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Freiburg, Germany
• ² Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• ³ Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• ⁴ International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• ⁵ Department of Child Psychiatry and Psychotherapy for inpatient and day-care treatments, University of Bern, University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Bern, Switzerland
• ⁶ Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
• ⁷ Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
• ⁸ State Institute of Health, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Bad Kissingen, Germany

Introduction: Mothers are exposed to a variety of stressors in the early years of their children's lives, being at risk for mental illness. The aim of our analysis was to estimate the type and frequency of and potential risk factors for psychiatric disorders in mothers with children aged up to three years. Methods: Based on random population samples from three urban areas in Germany, mothers of infants were recruited for a population-based cohort study as part of the SKKIPPI project. The subjects underwent a two-stage screening process at baseline: A standardized psychiatric diagnostic interview using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I-7) was conducted only with mothers who showed an elevated psychosocial and mental health burden. Mothers with specific psychiatric disorders were invited for follow-up after six months. Results: 814 mothers participated in the psychiatric interview, 304 in the follow-up. At baseline interview, 5 % of the mothers had at least one current psychiatric disorder. Generalized anxiety disorders (2%) and major depressive episodes (1%) were the most common disorders. Of these mothers, 42% were still affected at the 6month follow-up. Risk factors were having at least one strong stressor in life, a severe negative experience in the own childhood, a previously diagnosed psychiatric disorder, a low/medium educational level, and having already received support through early childhood support programmes. Discussion: The occurrence of psychiatric disorders in mothers with young children seemed lower than previously reported, in the majority symptoms disappeared after 6 months. The study provides important information on the frequency of psychiatric disorders in this group and enables care services to be adapted to meet their needs.