Archives of women's mental health
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Arch Womens Ment Health · Dec 2010
Identifying intimate partner violence (IPV) during the postpartum period in a Greek sample.
Research has highlighted the wide impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the public health role of community health professionals in detection of victimized women. The purpose of this study was to identify postpartum emotional and physical abuse and to validate the Greek version of the Women Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) along with its sensitivity and specificity. Five hundred seventy-nine mothers within 12 weeks postpartum were recruited from the perinatal care registers of the Maternity Departments of two public hospitals in Athens, Greece. ⋯ The area under ROC curve (AUC) was found to be 0.824, and the logistic estimate for the threshold score of 0/1 fitted the model sensitivity at 99.7% and model specificity at 64.4%. Our data confirm the validity of the Greek version of the WAST in identifying IPV. The validated Greek WAST scale could be used for screening purposes in both clinical practice and research.
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Arch Womens Ment Health · Oct 2010
Neuroticism-related personality traits are related to symptom severity in patients with premenstrual dysphoric disorder and to the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphism 5-HTTPLPR.
Neuroticism has been linked to a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), with short-allele carriers being overrepresented among high-scorers on neuroticism. Studies evaluating neuroticism-related personality traits in relation to the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism among patients with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and are lacking. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between PMDD and neuroticism-related personality traits, and secondly, to relate the personality trait scores of PMDD patients to experienced symptom severity and to the 5-HTTLPR short allele. ⋯ Furthermore, PMDD patients with at least one copy of the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism scored higher on psychic trait anxiety and lack of assertiveness than PMDD patients who were homozygous for the long allele. PMDD patients who suffer from more severe luteal phase symptoms also display increased scores of neuroticism-related personality traits in comparison with healthy controls. Within the group of PMDD patients, differences in certain personality trait scores are associated with the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism.
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Arch Womens Ment Health · Apr 2010
The utility of screening for perinatal depression in the second trimester among Chinese: a three-wave prospective longitudinal study.
This paper aims to study the pattern of perinatal depressive symptomatology and determine the predictive power of second trimester perinatal depressive symptoms for future perinatal periods. A population-based sample of 2,178 women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in the second and third trimesters and at 6 weeks postpartum. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to determine the EPDS scores across three stages. ⋯ Women with a second trimester EPDS score >14 were 11.78 times more likely in the third trimester and 7.15 times more likely at 6 weeks postpartum to exhibit perinatal depressive symptomatology after adjustment of sociodemographic variables. The area under the curve for perinatal depressive symptomatology was 0.85 in the third trimester and 0.77 at 6 weeks postpartum. To identify women at high risk for postpartum depression, healthcare professionals could consider screening all pregnant women in the second trimester so that secondary preventive intervention may be implemented.
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This article highlights four areas of mental health affecting women in the reproductive age group which, in the author's opinion, are poorly dealt with in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM IV) (American Psychiatric Association 1994). These are depression occurring during pregnancy; childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder; disorders of parent-to-infant attachment and perinatal bereavement. It is suggested that, if these could be better addressed in the forthcoming DSM V, this would provide a very significant impetus for improved education of health professionals, as well as better recognition and earlier intervention in these disorders. As these are relatively common disorders, a very large number of women and their families would potentially benefit.