Proposed by the EPA Section on Women, Gender and Mental Health -The risk of new onsets and recurrences of affective psychosis and bipolar disorder is increased in the peripartum period, and in the first weeks after childbirth it is the highest than at any other time in a woman’s life. The first speaker will present recent findings from his and other research groups on the biological and psychosocial causation of this phenomenon. The second speaker will present recent data from a population study examining the strength of the association of parental mental illness and risk of injury to the offspring. Findings will be reported not only for maternal but also paternal mental illness, for common and severe mental disorders and for children in the first year of life versus older age groups. Increasing evidence shows that pregnancy has differential effects on the pharmacokinetics of psychotropic drugs. Large drops of plasma levels have been reported for some agents, potentially placing some pregnant women with severe mental illness at a greater risk of recurrence. The third speaker will discuss current pharmacokinetic and clinical research and make recommendations for therapeutic drug monitoring in the preconception, pregnancy and early postnatal period. Although suicide attempts in the perinatal period can lead to significant complications for pregnancy and child outcomes, they have received little attention in research. The fourth speaker will present recent findings on the prevalence of suicide attempts in pregnancy and the postnatal period and the profiles of risk factors from a large sample of women treated in mother and baby inpatient units.