BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2013) George

Anxiety symptoms and coping strategies in the perinatal period

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Wicri demo This page is created in the framework of a set of experimentation that were initiated by a meeting of Académie Lorraine des Sciences dealing with Denial of pregnancy. It contents an article that was written by people for Lorraine and published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. This page is to copied from Wicri/Lorraine. It is also copied of Wicri/Psychology. Some changes will be done in indexing and links.

Title Anxiety symptoms and coping strategies in the perinatal period. Authors Astrid George(1), Rita F Luz(1) ; Claude de Tychey(1,2) ; Nathalie Thilly(3,4) ; Elisabeth Spitz(1) Affiliations (1) Department of Psychology, Laboratory EA 4360 Apemac-EPSaM, University of Lorraine, Ile du Saulcy BP 30309 57006 METZ, Cedex 1, France (2) Department of Psychology, Laboratory Interpsy, EA 4432, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France (3) Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Evaluation, CIC-EC CIE6 Inserm, Academic Medical Centre, Brabois, Nancy, France (4) University of Lorraine EA 4360 Apemac Nancy, 9 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France

Abstract

Background

The aim of the present study was to explore the prospective relationship between anxiety symptoms and coping strategies during late pregnancy and early postpartum.

Methods

Participants completed the Hospital Anxiety Depression-Anxiety subscale and Carver’s Brief COPE at two time points, namely during the last trimester of pregnancy (N = 400) and at two months postpartum (N = 158).

Results

Antenatally, 18.8% of pregnant women presented severe anxiety symptoms while 20.2% of women presented severe anxiety symptoms after birth. Carver's proposed coping styles allowed to significantly distinguish between anxious and non anxious women during these two periods. Anxious women used significantly more inappropriate coping and less adaptive coping responses, such as self-blame and denial of reality, which remained associated with anxiety in the perinatal period. Our results also indicated a decrease in adaptive coping in women without anxiety after birth (e.g. acceptance, positive reframing).

Conclusion

Our findings confirm that antenatal and postnatal anxiety symptoms occur frequently and that inappropriate and/or non functional coping may account for persisting anxiety after childbirth. Limitations: Data were based on self-reports and participating women were predominantly primiparous. A high drop-out rate at two months postpartum must also be acknowledged.

Background

Pregnancy and postpartum periods are known as sensitive periods in a woman’s life. This specific time-frame, encompasses a major risk of psychiatric morbidity Template:Bibl num ref. However, there remains a lack of longitudinal studies regarding psychological distress and development of mental illness, even though this issue represents a major public health concern for women and their children. Anxiety symptoms in the perinatal period are frequent [2]. Nonetheless, data pertaining to prevalence rates of anxiety disorders are limited and are impeded by a number of factors including a deficit in research [3], the definition of anxiety during pregnancy and postnatal period as a specific category [4] and a heterogeneous use of psychometric data [5]. Moreover, much of the published research has only assessed postpartum anxiety through retrospective chart reviews or cases studies, thus making it difficult to draw acceptable conclusions as to the prevalence of perinatal anxiety and the relationship between prenatal and postnatal anxiety.

References

Brockington IF, Macdonald E. Anxiety, obsessions and morbid preoccupations in pregnancy and the puerperium. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2006;13(5):253–263. [PubMed]

See also

• Link to original: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3867672/