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Emotional and Cognitive Changes in Pregnancy and Early Puerperium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ali Jarrahi-Zadeh ,
F. J. Kane Jr. ,
R. L. Van De Castlf ,
P. A. Lachenbruch  and
J. A. Ewing
Ali Jarrahi-Zadeh
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514. John Umstead Hospital, North Carolina
F. J. Kane Jr.
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514
R. L. Van De Castlf
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Virginia
P. A. Lachenbruch
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514
J. A. Ewing
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514
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Extract

Emotional change during pregnancy and the postpartum period is very common (37, 42); mental illness of psychotic proportions occurs more frequently in the postpartum period than in the period of pregnancy (33). These psychotic illnesses occurring in the postpartum period have remained an area of controversy for several reasons. The clinical phenomenology of these psychotic reactions seems unusually rich in confusional and delirious features (19), even when reported by those who contend they are no different from the usual run of psychotic illness (41). The fact that 80 per cent. of these serious reactions occur in the first 30 days postpartum (33) has raised doubt in the minds of some that these reactions merely represent the stress of pregnancy falling on a predisposed personality. An alternative hypothesis might be that the interaction of psychological and endocrine factors at the end of pregnancy makes this a particularly stressful period. The delirious and confusional symptoms might also be better explained as being related to endocrine dysfunction of some kind.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 115 , Issue 524 , July 1969 , pp. 797 - 805
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

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