Coping strategies in women with anxiety and depression during prenatal period

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency and association of coping strategies with different levels of anxiety and depression.
 Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in private hospitals of Karachi, from January to May 2017. Data was collected from pregnant women willing to participate in the study by using non-probability convenient sampling. A questionnaire was used to gather socio-demographic and obstetric data after informed consent from pregnant women. Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) was used to identify different levels of anxiety and depression. Coping strategies were assessed by using brief inventory results which were assessed on SPSS 16.
 Results: Study group included 400 women between the ages of 18 to 38 years with a mean age of
 27.08 ± 4.074. The adaptive strategies were used by 23.3% of the study group. Maladaptive strate- gies were adopted by 17.9% of women and 58.9% were using both adaptive and maladaptive strate- gies. There was a significant association of adaptive strategies and women appearing normal on HADS scale (p-value= 0.000, OR= .077) whereas there was negative association with maladaptive strategies and normal behaviour (p-value= 0.032, OR= 1.747). Women with borderline anxiety were using only combination of both types of strategies. Women using maladaptive strategies were having significant association with abnormal level of anxiety (p-value= 0.000, OR= 3.369) with borderline de- pression (p-value= 0.012, OR= .420) and abnormal depression (p-value= 0.000, OR= -6.657). Active coping (OR 5.952 and 6.679), instrumental (OR 4.138 and 6.679), planning (OR 10.300 and 6.646),) and positive reframing (OR 1.735 and 3.765) were protective for abnormal anxiety and abnormal de- pression. Religious practices were protective for abnormal anxiety only (OR= 4.289).
 Conclusion: Adaptive strategies are associated with normal mental status and are protective for anxiety and depression whereas maladaptive strategies are the risk factors for anxiety and depression. Pregnant women should be encouraged to adopt adaptive strategies to reduce the adverse outcome associated with anxiety and depression.

The mediating role of coping between Alexithymia and mental health problems among women with PCOS

“…Research has proven that maladaptive coping strategy is a primary cause of "psychological problems" such as "depression," "anxiety," "rapid mood fluctuations, and various other minor and major mental health problems." A study conducted on Pakistani expecting mothers showed that if all maladaptive means are adopted, then it will lead to abnormal behavior since this research concluded a negative association between maladaptive coping and normal human behavior (Rabia et al, 2017).…”