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The Psychiatric Consequences of Spontaneous Abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Trevor Friedman  and
Dennis Gath
Trevor Friedman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Queen's Medical Centre, Clifton Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2UH
Dennis Gath
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
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Abstract

Sixty-seven women were interviewed four weeks after spontaneous abortion. As determined by the Present State Examination, 32 of these women were psychiatric cases. This rate is four times higher than in the general population of women. In each case the diagnosis was depressive disorder, a finding confirmed by scores on three depression rating scales. Many women showed typical features of grief. Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with a history of previous spontaneous abortion, and less so with childlessness.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 155 , Issue 6 , December 1989 , pp. 810 - 813
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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