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Anxiety and Stress in Postpartum Women
The problem of postpartum depression has, deservedly, received renewed research and public interest thanks to many high-profile women talking openly about the problem and several, unfortunately, high-profile murder cases. Researchers, however, may have focused their attention on only one postpartum problem to the exclusion of another, anxiety and stress resulting from childbirth.
Now, a research article in the British medical journal Psychiatry (2006, 6:12) has brought this problem to the fore. The authors indicate that a measure which is widely used, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, was minimizing or overlooking anxiety in the absence of depression. Therefore, women with postpartum-related anxiety and stress symptoms failed to appear as a group which should be considered for treatment. They set out to rectify this error and to "assess the prevalence of postnatal distress using this scale and another, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21)."
A sample of 325 women ages 18-44, with a mean age of 32, were evaluated in health centers in Australia. The result was that a total of 41 women of the sample not only had depression, but symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The implications are that women need to be evaluated not only for postpartum depression, but the symptoms of stress and anxiety which may be hidden if current methods of evaluation are continued. Healthcare workers, therefore, need to be mindful of these additional treatment issues and look for more sensitive instruments for evaluation.
Related Topics: Babyproof Your Sanity: Six Tips for New Parents, New Moms Need Time to Heal
Technorati Tags: postpartumanxiety, postpartumstress, postpartumdepression, postnataldistress
Now, a research article in the British medical journal Psychiatry (2006, 6:12) has brought this problem to the fore. The authors indicate that a measure which is widely used, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, was minimizing or overlooking anxiety in the absence of depression. Therefore, women with postpartum-related anxiety and stress symptoms failed to appear as a group which should be considered for treatment. They set out to rectify this error and to "assess the prevalence of postnatal distress using this scale and another, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21)."
A sample of 325 women ages 18-44, with a mean age of 32, were evaluated in health centers in Australia. The result was that a total of 41 women of the sample not only had depression, but symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The implications are that women need to be evaluated not only for postpartum depression, but the symptoms of stress and anxiety which may be hidden if current methods of evaluation are continued. Healthcare workers, therefore, need to be mindful of these additional treatment issues and look for more sensitive instruments for evaluation.
Related Topics: Babyproof Your Sanity: Six Tips for New Parents, New Moms Need Time to Heal
Technorati Tags: postpartumanxiety, postpartumstress, postpartumdepression, postnataldistress
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