Obsessive-compulsive disorder in pregnant women during the third trimester of pregnancy
Introduction
Pregnancy is a period of the reproductive cycle in which physiologically marked alterations affecting neurotransmitter functions occur in gonadal steroids [1]. It is also one of the most important social and psychological life events for women. During this period, preexisting mood disorders may exhibit symptomatic exacerbation in some women [2]. Moreover, studies suggest that symptoms of depression and anxiety during pregnancy are predictive of a higher likelihood of postnatal depression [3], [4], [5].
The mean age of onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) includes the childbearing years in women [6], and OCD is associated with evident impairment in the level of quality of life and disability in occupational and social areas [7], [8]. Some authors reported an association between pregnancy and onset of OCD in some women [9], [10]. Whereas Neziroglu et al [9] found a correlation between pregnancy and onset of OCD symptoms in 39% of female patients with OCD who have children, Labad et al [11] found this rate to be 6%. In addition, Williams and Koran [12] reported that pregnancy is associated with the onset of OCD in 13% of female patients with OCD who had been pregnant. Researches have also demonstrated that some pregnant women may have an increased risk of exacerbation of OCD symptoms [12], [13].
Although the relationship of OCD to pregnancy has been extensively explored, data regarding the prevalence and clinical characteristics of OCD during pregnancy are inadequate. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study comparing symptomatology of OCD in pregnant and nonpregnant women. Therefore, this study principally aimed to examine the current prevalence, clinical features, and related factors of OCD during pregnancy. We additionally sought to examine the differences between the clinical features of OCD in pregnant women and nonpregnant women and to examine the course of preexisting OCD during pregnancy. Because of the last objective of this study, we planned on conducting the study among pregnant women during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Section snippets
Method
The study was conducted in 2 medical research centers: The Meram Medical School of Selçuk University in Konya, Turkey, and The Medical School of Kocatepe University in Afyon, Turkey. The study included 566 consecutive pregnant women who presented to the obstetric outpatient clinics of 2 research centers during the third trimester (27 or more gestational weeks) between January 2006 and May 2006 and were subsequently referred to the psychiatric outpatient clinics of the centers after their
Results
The mean age of the pregnant women (n = 434) was 27.23 ± 5.55 years (range, 17-44 years). All subjects were married, and most (n = 374; 86.2%) were housewives. The mean duration of pregnancy was 35.08 ± 3.77 weeks (range, 27-42 weeks); the mean number of pregnancies was 2.26 ± 1.32 (range, 1-8). The number of primigravida women was 154 (35.5%); 249 (57.4%) women had at least 1 live birth (Table 1).
Of 434 women, 15 (3.5%) met the criteria for OCD according to SCID-I during the third trimester of
Discussion
In the present study, the current prevalence of OCD was 3.5% in pregnant women during the third trimester of pregnancy. Twelve-month prevalence rates of OCD for women have been reported to be 0.37% to 3.3% in the general population [19], [20], [21], [22]. Whereas our prevalence rate was similar with that reported by Çilli et al [20], in 1 of the centers where the present study was carried out, it was higher than that reported in other communities (0.37%-1.8%). The prevalence rate we calculated
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2021, Psychiatry ResearchCitation Excerpt :These findings suggest that pregnancy may not be a risk factor for an onset of all anxiety and related disorders and that instead, it may be a risk factor mainly for OCD and to a lesser extent, for PD and GAD. Our findings about the onset of OCD and PD during pregnancy are consistent with meagre previous research, although those studies reported lower frequencies of onset of OCD during pregnancy: 13.1% (Williams and Koran, 1997), 13.3% (Uguz et al., 2007) and 39.0% (Neziroglu et al., 1992) of all pregnant women with OCD. Onset of PD during pregnancy has also been reported (Guler et al., 2015), but no figures were provided in relation to the overall number of pregnant women with PD.
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2020, Journal of Psychiatric ResearchCitation Excerpt :However, there are many alterations other than anxiety and depression, and they are being scantly studied. For example, the risk of obsession and compulsion alterations is estimated to be twice as high in pregnant women than in the general population, due to the excessive care and concern that pregnant women usually show for their health (Russell et al., 2013; Woody et al., 2017; Uguz et al., 2007). Moreover, other psychopathological symptoms have been related to worse obstetric outcomes during childbirth, such as a greater number of somatisations or a higher level of psychotic symptoms (Romero-Gonzalez et al., 2019).
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