Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:38:43.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Maternity Blues in Post-partum and Post-operative Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

V. Levy
V. Levy*
Affiliation:
Department of Midwifery Education, Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske), Truro, Cornwall TRI 3LJ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In order to establish whether the maternity blues is peculiar to the puerperium a selfrating blues questionnaire was administered to women after childbirth and after surgery. A period of dysphoria, similar in many respects to the maternity blues, was experienced by women post-operatively. The main difference between maternity and post-operative patterns of dysphoria seemed to lie in the timing of the blues, but on closer analysis many post-operative dysphoric symptoms peaked in a similar way to those in the maternity group. In the search for the cause of the maternity blues it may be helpful to study the same parameters in post-operative dysphoria.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 151 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 368 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cohen, M., Pickar, D., Dubois, M., Roth, Y., Naber, D., Bunney, W. (1981) Surgical stress and endorphins (letter), Lancet, i, 213–214.Google Scholar
Kane, F. J., Harman, W. J., Keeler, M. H. & Ewing, J. A. (1968) Emotional And Cognitive Disturbance In The Early Puerperium, British Journal Of Psychiatry, 114, 99–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R. E., Mackenzie, W. E., West, C., Mcguire, R. J. & Cox, J. L. (1984) Day-to-day mood changes after childbirth: further data, British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 620–625.Google Scholar
Koob, G. F. & Bloom, F. E. (1983) Behavioural effects of opioid peptides, British Medical Bulletin, 39, 89–94.Google Scholar
Newnham, J. P., Dennet, P. M., Ferron, S. A., Tomlin, S., Lego, C., Bourne, G. L. & Rees, L. H. (1984) A study of the relationship between circulating beta-endorphin-like immuno-reactivity and post partum “blues”, Clinical Endocrinology, 20, 169–177.Google Scholar
Pitt, B. (1973) Maternity Blues, British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 431–433.Google Scholar
Priest, R. (1979) Puerperal depression and its treatment, Journal of Maternal and Child Health, 4, 312–317.Google Scholar
Raphael, B. (1974) Parameters of health outcome following hysterectomy, Bulletin of the Postgraduate Committee in Medicine, Sydney, December, 214–220.Google Scholar
Robin, A. A. (1962) The psychological changes of normal parturition. Psychiatric Quarterly, 36, 129–150.Google Scholar
Stein, G. S. (1980) The pattern of mental change and body weight change in the first post-partum week. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 24, 165–171.Google Scholar
Stein, G. S. (1982) The maternity blues. In Motherhood and Mental Illness, (eds Kumar, I. F. Brockington A R.). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, T. A., Fletcher, J. E., Hill, R. G. (1982) Influence of medication, pain and progress in labour on plasma beta-endorphin-like immuno-reactivity. British Journal of Anoesthesia, 54, 401.Google Scholar
Yalom, I. D., Lunde, D. T., Moos, R. H. & Hamburg, D. A. (1968) Postpartum blues syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 18, 16–27.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.