Panic disorder during pregnancy: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND

Panic Disorder is a serious anxiety disorder, and one of the severe mental problems that impacts mothers' mental health and fetal health as well.

AIM

The current scoping review aims to provide a wide overview of the literature regarding panic disorder during pregnancy.

METHODS

Twenty-five eligible articles were selected for full review from SAGE, CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, Research Gate, Science Direct, and Google Scholar literature searches. This review followed the framework suggested by Arksey and O'Malley for a scoping review.

RESULTS

Content analysis of the studies was done, and five categories have been identified: Panic disorder course during pregnancy; prevalence of panic disorder during pregnancy; factors associated with pregnancy panic disorder; impact of panic disorder during pregnancy; and treatment of panic disorder during pregnancy.

CONCLUSION

A significant gap in the literature, and inconsistent and mixed findings regarding prevalence, impact, associated factors, and treatment of PD during pregnancy exist. This scoping review revealed that more studies need to be conducted to further understand and examine PD during pregnancy.