A study of psychiatric morbidity during second trimester of pregnancy subsequent to abortion in the previous pregnancy.

INTRODUCTION

Pregnancy plays a unique role in the transformation of women towards completeness. For those women who have had a previous unsuccessful outcome, pregnancy may bring a lot of inevitable negative emotions. We studied psychiatric morbidity during second trimester of pregnancy subsequent to abortion in the previous pregnancy.

METHODS

The study was carried out in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India. A total of 120 patients were divided into 4 groups depending on their pregnancy status. All the groups were compared with each other regarding their psychiatric morbidities, which were measured using various rating scales such as Hamilton Depression rating scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, Presumptive Stressful Life events Scale, and Brief Psychotic Rating Scale.

RESULTS

We found that subjects with history of previous abortion, whether single or more had significantly higher mean depression and anxiety score than primigravida or subjects with history of previous successful pregnancy; depression and anxiety scores decreased with increase in time gap between abortion and current pregnancy. High anxiety was found in 36.67%(11) of females with history of previous abortion. We also found that 36.67%(11) of subjects with previous single abortion and 30%(9) of subjects with previous 2 or more abortions were suffering from depressive episode. None of the female suffered from psychotic disorder.

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of depression and anxiety is high in pregnancy after previous abortion and more in subjects who conceive earlier after previous abortion. These results warrant the need for screening all pregnancies for psychiatric morbidity after a previous abortion.