Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:24:27.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Psychotic Psychiatric Disorder After Childbirth

A Prospective Study of Prevalence, Incidence, Course and Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter J. Cooper ,
Elizabeth A. Campbell ,
Ann Day ,
Helen Kennerley  and
Alison Bond
Peter J. Cooper*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Elizabeth A. Campbell
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
Helen Kennerley
Affiliation:
Currently Clinical Psychologist, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Alison Bond
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
*
∗Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The psychiatric state of 483 women was examined antenatally and at 3, 6, and 12 months postpartum. Comprehensive assessments were made of all women antenatally and of subgroups of the full sample postnatally. Psychiatric state was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire, the Present State Examination and the Montgomery and åsberg Depression Rating Scale. In terms of PSE criteria, the point prevalence of non-psychotic psychiatric disorder antenatally was found to be 6.0%; and postnatally it was estimated to be 8.7% at 3 months, 8.8% at 6 months and 5.2% at 12 months after delivery. These prevalence rates were compared to the rate in a general population sample of non-puerperal women and found to be no greater. In a subgroup of the full sample, the incidence of psychiatric disorder in the year following delivery was estimated to be 15.1%, which is close to a figure previously reported for women in the community. The onset of psychiatric disturbance was soon after delivery in most instances; and, for the majority, the episode of disturbance lasted for 3 months or less. The distribution of PSE Catego classes and syndromes among the antenatal and postnatal samples were found to be similar to those in the non-puerperal comparison sample. Thus, the prevalence, incidence, and nature of non-psychotic psychiatric disorder in the 12 months following delivery do not appear to distinguish it from such disorders arising at other times.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 6 , June 1988 , pp. 799 - 806
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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

Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J. & Erbaugh, J. (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.Google Scholar
Blair, R. A., Gilmore, J. S., Playfair, M. R., Tisdal, M. W. & O'Shea, C. (1970) Puerperal depression: a study of predictive factors. Journal of the Royal College of Practitioners, 19, 22–25.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.Google ScholarPubMed
Cox, J. L., Connor, Y. & Kendell, R. E. (1982) Prospective study of the psychiatric disorders of childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 111–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalton, K. (1971) Prospective study into puerperal depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 689–692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dean, C. & Kendell, R. E. (1981) The symptomatology of puerperal illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 128–133.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, P. & Henderson, S. (1978) The use of a two-phase design in a population survey. Social Psychiatry, 13, 231–237.Google Scholar
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. (1978) A diagnostic interview: the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970) A standardised psychiatric interview for use in community survey. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 24, 18–23.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. & Hope, K. (1974) The Social Grading of Occupations: A New Approach and Scale. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Hayworth, J., Little, B. C., Carter, B. S., Raptopoulous, P., Priest, R. G. & Sandler, M. (1980) A predictive study of postpartum depression: some predisposing characteristics. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 53, 161–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R. E. (1985) Emotional and physical factors in the genesis of puerperal mental disorders. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 21, 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendell, R. E., Wainwright, S., Hailey, A. & Shannon, B. (1976) The influence of childbirth on psychiatric morbidity. Psychological Medicine, 6, 297–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R. E., Rennie, D., Clark, J. A. & Dean, C. (1981) The social and obstetric correlates of psychiatric admission in the Puerperium. Psychological Medicine, 11, 341–350.Google Scholar
Kumar, R. & Robson, K. M. (1984) A prospective study of emotional disorders in childbearing women. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 35–47.Google Scholar
Manly, P. C., McMahon, R. B., Bradley, C. F. & Davidson, P. O. (1982) Depressive attributional style and depression following childbirth. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 91, 245–254.Google Scholar
Montgomery, S. A. & Asberg, M. (1979) A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 382–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, M. W., Neunaber, D. J. & Zekoski, E. M. (1984) A prospective study of postpartum depression: prevalence, course and predictive factors. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 158–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paffenbarger, R. S. (1964) Epidemiological aspects of postpartum mental illness. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 18, 189–195.Google Scholar
Paffenbarger, R. S. (1982) Epidemiological aspects of mental illness associated with childbearing In Motherhood and Mental Illness (eds Brockington, I. F. & Kumar, R.). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1983) Methodological aspects of life events research. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 27, 341–352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Dienelt, M. N., Klerman, G. L., Lindenthal, J. J. & Pepper, M. P. (1969) Life events and depression: a controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 21, 753–760.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Emms, E. M., Fletcher, J. & Rassaby, E. S. (1980) Life events and social support in puerperal depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 339–346.Google Scholar
Pitt, B. (1968) “Atypical” depression following childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1325–1335.Google Scholar
Pugh, T. F., Jerath, B. K., Schmidt, W. M. & Reed, R. B. (1963). Rates of mental disease related to childbearing. New England Journal of Medicine, 268, 1224–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raskin, A., Schulterbrandt, J., Reatig, N. & McKeon, J. (1970) Differential response to chlorpromazine, imipramine and placebo: a study of sub-groups of hospitalised depressed patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 164–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryle, A. (1961) The psychological disturbances associated with 345 pregnancies in 137 women. Journal of Mental Science, 107, 279–286.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773–782.Google Scholar
Surtees, P. G., Dean, C., Ingham, J. G., Kreitman, N. B., Miller, P. McC. & Sashidharan, S. P. (1983) Psychiatric disorder in women from an Edinburgh community: associations with demographic factors. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 238–246.Google Scholar
Surtees, P. G., Sashidharan, S. P. & Dean, C. (1986) Affective disorder among women in the general population: a longitudinal study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 176–186.Google Scholar
Tod, E. D. M. (1964) Puerperal depression: a prospective epidemiological study. The Lancet, ii, 1264–1266.Google Scholar
Vazquez-Barquero, J. L., Diez-Manrique, J. F., Pena, C., Quintanal, R. G. & Lopez, M. L. (1986) Two stage design in a community survey. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 88–97.Google Scholar
Watson, J. P., Elliott, S. A., Rugg, A. J. & Brough, D. I. (1984) Psychiatric disorder in pregnancy and the first postnatal year. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 453–462.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.