Psychological medicine
-
Psychological medicine · Nov 2010
A prospective longitudinal study of the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from childbirth events.
Childbirth has been linked to postpartum impairment. However, controversy exists regarding the onset and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth, with seminal studies being limited by methodological issues. This longitudinal prospective study examined the prevalence of PTSD following childbirth in a large sample while controlling for pre-existing PTSD and affective symptomatology. ⋯ This is the first study to demonstrate the occurrence of full criteria PTSD resulting from childbirth after controlling for pre-existing PTSD and partial PTSD and clinically significant depression and anxiety in pregnancy. The findings indicate that PTSD can result from a traumatic birth experience, though this is not the normative response.
-
Psychological medicine · Oct 2010
Delivery outcome after maternal use of antidepressant drugs in pregnancy: an update using Swedish data.
Concerns have been expressed about possible adverse effects of the use of antidepressant medication during pregnancy, including risk for neonatal pathology and the presence of congenital malformations. ⋯ Women using antidepressants during pregnancy and their newborns have increased pathology. It is not clear how much of this is due to drug use or underlying pathology. Use of TCAs was found to carry a higher risk than other antidepressants and paroxetine seems to be associated with a specific teratogenic property.
-
Recently released prisoners are at markedly higher risk of suicide than the general population. The aim of this study was to identify key risk factors for suicide by offenders released from prisons in England and Wales. ⋯ There is a need to improve the continuity of care for people who are released from prison and for community health, offender and social care agencies to coordinate care for these vulnerable individuals.
-
Psychological medicine · May 2010
Symptom dimensions of post-myocardial infarction depression, disease severity and cardiac prognosis.
Individual symptoms of post-myocardial infarction (MI) depression may be differentially associated with cardiac prognosis, in which somatic/affective symptoms appear to be associated with a worse cardiovascular prognosis than cognitive/affective symptoms. These findings hold important implications for treatment but need to be replicated before conclusions regarding treatment can be drawn. We therefore examined the relationship between depressive symptom dimensions following MI and both disease severity and prospective cardiac prognosis. ⋯ We confirmed that somatic/affective, rather than cognitive/affective, symptoms of depression are associated with MI severity and cardiovascular prognosis. Interventions to improve cardiovascular prognosis by treating depression should be targeted at somatic aspects of depression.
-
Psychological medicine · May 2010
The genetic and environmental relationship between major depression and the five-factor model of personality.
Certain personality traits have long been suspected to reflect an enduring vulnerability to major depression (MD) in part because of shared genetic risk factors. Although many have agreed that normative personality is well captured by the 'Big-Five' personality traits of Openness (O), Conscientiousness (C), Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A) and Neuroticism (N), to date genetically informative studies have only examined the relationship between MD and N and E. ⋯ A large proportion of the genetic risk for MD that is expressed via personality is captured by N, with a modest amount due to C, and small amounts from O, E and A.