Depression and anxiety during pregnancy and six months postpartum: a follow‐up study

Abstract

Depression and anxiety appear to be less common postpartum than during pregnancy.

Depression during pregnancy: prevalence and risk factors among women attending a public health clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Consistent with the extant literature, we found an association between antenatal major depression and a previous history of depression 5,6,7,14,18,19,27 as well as previous psychiatric treatment 10, 23,24 . Since major depressive disorder is often a recurrent condition, it is not surprising that a prior depressive episode is a significant risk factor for depression during pregnancy.…”

“…The lower prevalence in these countries might have resulted from high quality antenatal care, better nutrition during pregnancy, and less stressful life events such as financial difficulties 58,59 . Some studies in developed countries show rates in excess of 20% 6,9,15,20,23,24,60,61,62 . These findings could be explained by the use of screening questionnaires rather than diagnostic interviews.…”

“…Thus, prevalence rates of depression during pregnancy were significantly higher in low-income countries. The main risk factors associated with these differences are past history of psychiatric disorders, poor antenatal care, poor nutrition, stressful life events, economic deprivation and gender based violence, which are more prevalent in developing countries 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29 .…”

A Study of Self Reported Mental Health Problems in Antenatal Women

“…(9) There are still other studies which have evaluated for the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among antenatal women and their estimates range from 15% to 29%. (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) The wide variation in the prevalence of depression and anxiety could be due to the different scales used in various studies. The figures of 66% (women who reported having one or more mental health problem), 64% (women found to have clinically significant depression) and 46% (women found to have clinically significant anxiety) are significantly higher than those reported in the literature that was reviewed.…”

Maternal mortality trends in Australia

“…Twelve studies establishing the prevalence of anxiety disorders in the perinatal period were identified (Table 7 [ 42,97,128,[206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214] In addition to the studies listed in Table 7, a number of studies have looked specifically at the incidence of postnatal PTSD with childbirth specified as the traumatic event [207,212,[215][216][217][218]. These studies, assessing for childbirth-specific PTSD occurring anywhere from 4 weeks to 1 year postpartum, found an incidence ranging from 0 to 6.9% with a mean of 3.8%.…”