Prevalence of postpartum depression and anxiety among women with spinal cord injury
Objective: To examine the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum anxiety (PPA) in mothers with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional study. Setting: Online multi-national study. Participants: We surveyed an international sample of 102 women who gave birth...
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Published in | The journal of spinal cord medicine Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 247 - 252 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Taylor & Francis
04.03.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Objective: To examine the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum anxiety (PPA) in mothers with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional study.
Setting: Online multi-national study.
Participants: We surveyed an international sample of 102 women who gave birth following cervical SCI (C1-C8, n = 30), upper thoracic SCI (T1-T6, n = 12) or lower level SCI (T7 & below, n = 60). Participants were primarily from Canada and Sweden, and mean age at childbirth was 30 ± 6 years.
Outcome Measures: Subscales from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) were used to measure PPD (PRAMS-3D) and PPA (PRAMS-2A).
Results: PPD and PPA were most prevalent in women with cervical SCI, followed by upper thoracic SCI then lower SCI. Self-reported PPD was more prevalent than clinically diagnosed PPD in women with cervical SCI (P = 0.03) and upper thoracic SCI (P = 0.03). With cervical SCI, 75% of women diagnosed with MDD before pregnancy scored >9 on the PRAMS PPD subscale, indicating clinically relevant PPD. However, only 10% were diagnosed with PPD. Of women with lower SCI diagnosed with MDD before pregnancy, 25% had a clinically relevant score for self-reported PPD; 7% were diagnosed.
Conclusions: This is currently the largest study examining PPD and PPA after SCI. Clinicians should be aware that mothers with SCI (particularly high-level SCI) may have increased risk of PPD and PPA. PPD is poorly understood in women with SCI and may even be underdiagnosed. SCI-related risk factors for PPD and PPA should be explored. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Authors contributed equally, i.e. shared first author. Senior authors of the present study. |
ISSN: | 1079-0268 2045-7723 2045-7723 |
DOI: | 10.1080/10790268.2019.1666239 |