Mixed mania associated with cessation of breastfeeding

BACKGROUND: 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. CASE PRESENTATION: 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. CONCLUSIONS: This case extends the limited literature on mania following weaning and highlights the role of rapid serum dopamine rise following breastfeeding cessation in mania.