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The Psychological Complications of Therapeutic Abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

G. Zolese  and
C. V. R. Blacker
G. Zolese*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London EC1A 7BE
C. V. R. Blacker
Affiliation:
Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Psychological or psychiatric disturbances occur in association with therapeutic abortions but they seem to be marked, severe, or persistent in only a minority (approximately 10%) of women. These consist mostly of caseness depression and anxiety. Psychoses are very uncommon, being repotted in only 0.003% of cases – most of whom have a history of previous psychiatric illness. Certain groups are especially at risk from adverse psychological sequelae; these include those with a past psychiatric history, younger women, those with poor social support, the multiparous, and those belonging to sociocultural groups antagonistic to abortion. This is not to overlook the fact that, adopting a crisis-resolution framework, subsequent termination of an unwanted pregnancy is itself ‘therapeutic‘. A better understanding of the nature of the risk factors would enable clinicians to identify vulnerable women for whom some form of psychological intervention might be beneficial.

Type
Review Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 6 , June 1992 , pp. 742 - 749
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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