Depression and Suicidality During Pregnancy (original) (raw)

The Suicide risk among women with high-risk pregnancies

International Archives of Medicine

Introduction: It is estimated that 20% of pregnant women from developing countries, including Brazil, are subjected to anxiety situations, and that the prevalence of antenatal depression ranges from 7 to 15%. Objective: To identify the negative influence of psychosocial aspects during pregnancy. Results: In Western modern civilization, child bearing is often seen as a source of happiness to women. Thus, it is unlikely to relate sadness to the status of pregnancy, which is corroborated by the almost inexistent body of evidence documenting epidemiological data regarding antenatal depression and suicidal ideation during pregnancy. Conclusions: Results point towards a low prevalence of suicidal ideation among pregnant women, possibly due to the fact that practically no assessment of mental state is done during the antenatal period. A prevention strategy targeted at identifying harmful pregnant women’s behavior and psychosocial aspects is needed, so as to early diagnose depression, suici...

Depression among pregnant women at the enD of pregnancy

2016

The research can be described as a quantitative study which aimed to examine depressive patterns among pregnant women. Interviews were conducted as well as a Beck Depression Inventory, applied to 42 pregnant women with gestational age under 36 weeks. Obtained results: 17% of pregnant women had indicative signs of depression and 7% had dysphoria. During the research it was perceived that being 35 years or more, not having a partner, having a low family income, being black and having a job were risk factors and determinants for depression. None of the pregnant women who practiced recreational activities presented signs of depression, while 20.6% not enjoyed these activities showed depression. It is concluded that depression is a reality in the lives of pregnant women and prenatal care is important for the detection of these patterns.

Depression in Pregnancy: A Psychiatric Dilemma

Objective: To highlight the clinical problem of antenatal depression. Method: A brief literature search was done to write a short review. The search was conducted in the databases like PubMed for the articles discussing the association of pregnancy with major depression. The search for this short review was conducted from January 2015 to February 2015, in California, USA with an intention to highlight the already established association of major depression with pregnancy. Result: Pregnancy is associated with various psychiatric problems. Major depression is the most common of all the psychiatric problems seen in pregnancy. Conclusion: Because many symptoms during pregnancy are easily confused with major depression. It is very easy to misdiagnose. The wrong diagnosis or a missed diagnosis of depression are equally harmful to the maternal and fetal health. Therefore, it is recommended that appropriate measures like assessment and screening tools plus education should be taken by the hospitals in order to help gynecologists to be able to differentiate major depression from the normal symptoms of pregnancy.

Psychosocial Study of Depression in Early Pregnancy

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1996

BackgroundThe psychosocial correlates of depression during pregnancy were explored.MethodPregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of a general hospital (n=1329) received a set of questionnaires including Zung's Self-Rating Depression Score (SDS). SDS high scorers (>49) (the cases: n=179) were compared with low scorers (<38) (the controls; n=343).ResultsThe cases were characterised by: first delivery; more nausea, vomiting, and anorexia; more menstrual pains and premenstrual irritability; early paternal loss; lower maternal care and higher paternal overprotection; higher public self-consciousness score; more smoking and use of medication in pregnancy; unwanted pregnancy; negative psychological response to the pregnancy by the woman and husband; poor intimacy by the husband; and having remarried.ConclusionsDepression in early pregnancy is determined mainly by psychosocial factors.

Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the first trimester of pregnancy and factors associated with current suicide risk

This study aimed to describe the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and to identify the factors associated with Current Suicide Risk (CSR) in the first trimester of pregnancy. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) was employed to diagnose mental disorders in 239 women enrolled in a prospective cohort in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Serum lipids, leptin and socio-economic status were the independent variables. CSR, the dependent variable, was entered as binary (yes/no) variable into crude and adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variances. CSR was found to be the main psychiatric syndrome (18.4%), followed by agoraphobia (17.2%), major depressive disorder (15.1%) and generalized anxiety disorder (10.5%). Women with CSR showed higher mean levels of cholesterol (169.2 vs. 159.2; p=0.017), high density lipoprotein (50.4 vs. 47.7; p=0.031) and low density lipoprotein (102.8 vs. 95.6; p=0.022) when compared to women without CSR. The adjusted regression model s...

Suicides and Suicidal Ideation During the Perinatal Period: Clinical and Demographic Data

International journal of innovative research in medical science, 2022

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for women in the postpartum period. Psychiatric disorders are common in pregnancy, affecting 15-29% of pregnant women, whereas clinical depression affects 10%-15% of them. Women during pregnancy and the postpartum period are particularly vulnerable to suicidal ideation. The prevalence of suicidal ideation ranges from 5% to 14% worldwide, while the rate of suicide during pregnancy and the postpartum period lies between two to three per 100,000 for countries like the UK and the USA. The main risk factor for suicidal ideation in the perinatal period is depression. Other mental illnesses, like schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar and adjustment disorder, consist of risk factors too. Some of the high-risk social characteristics for suicide thoughts are younger age, unpartnered status and well-being with their marriage, high parity, non-Caucasian race, no health insurance, poor social support, unplanned pregnancy, low-income origin country, unemployment, low educational level and smoking. Obstetrics complications like severe vaginal laceration, low weight infants and admission in the neonatal intensive care unit, perinatal fetal mortality and prior abortions consist of risk factors. Physical, psychological or sexual intimate partner violence, sexual trauma and history of physical or sexual abuse in the army, physical or sexual abuse during childhood, all contribute to suicidal thought. Knowledge of the psychiatric history from the time of enrolment in maternity units, better identification of mental health problems via psychometric screening tools, as well as the use of proper referral and medication, should be the routine in health care services.

Depressive Disorders During Pregnancy

Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2010

OBJECTIVE-To estimate the prevalence of major and minor depression, panic disorder, and suicidal ideation during pregnancy while also identifying factors independently associated with antenatal depressive disorders.

Using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to assess suicidal ideation among pregnant women in Lima, Peru

Archives of Women's Mental Health, 2014

We sought to examine the concordance of two suicidal ideation items from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), to evaluate the prevalence of suicidal ideation among pregnant women, and to assess the co-occurrence of suicidal ideation with antepartum depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,517 pregnant women attending prenatal care clinics in Lima, Peru. Item 9 of the PHQ-9 assesses suicidal ideation over the last 14 days while item 10 of the EPDS assesses suicidal ideation in the past 7 days. The two suicidal ideation items have a high concordance rate (84.2%) but a moderate agreement (the Cohen's kappa = 0.42). Based on the PHQ-9 and the EPDS, 15.8% and 8.8% of participants screened positive for suicidal ideation, respectively. Assessed by the PHQ-9, 51% of participants with suicidal ideation had probable depression. In prenatal care clinics, screening for suicidal ideation is needed for women with and without depressive symptoms. Future studies are needed to identify additional predictors of antepartum suicidality, determine the appropriate duration of reporting period for suicidal ideation screening, and assess the percentage of individuals with positive responses to the two suicidal ideation items at high risk of planning and attempting suicide.

Two studies on suicidality in the postpartum

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2008

Objective: Research in the prevalence of and risk factors for suicidality in the postpartum is extremely limited. We present here data on the prevalence of and factors associated with suicidality from two postpartum samples.Method: The first sample (SC) comprised 317 women consecutively screened for a trial of psychotherapy for postpartum depression. The second sample was a population-based (PB) sample of 386 women. We used the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) to assess suicidality in the SC sample and the self-harm question of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI9) in the PB sample.Results: According to the MINI and the BDI9, prevalence of high suicide risk was 5.7% and 11.1%, respectively, in the SC sample. Previous suicide attempts and a positive BDI were retained as predictors of suicidality. The BDI9 indicated suicidality in 8.3% of the 386 women in the PB sample; a positive BDI was retained in the multivariate analysis as a risk of suicidality.Conclusion: Clinicians should enquire vigorously about suicidality in women presenting with depressive symptoms or previous suicide attempts in the postpartum.