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Prevalence and Risk Factors of Postpartum Depression in a Tertiary Care Centre, Puducherry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2023

Zarine Maria Punnoose  and
Pradeep Thilakan
Zarine Maria Punnoose*
Affiliation:
Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Pondicherry, India
Pradeep Thilakan
Affiliation:
Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Pondicherry, India
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

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Aims

Postpartum depression (PPD) is the experience of depressed mood that begins anytime within the first four weeks after delivery. When left untreated, it can affect the infant's emotional and cognitive development and mother's health and family. South Indian studies on this topic are sparse. This study aimed at identifying the prevalence and risk factors of PPD in a tertiary care centre in Puducherry.

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study which included 140 antenatal women between 34 and 36 weeks’ period of gestation, and followed up at 6 weeks postpartum. Tools used in the study were semi-structured questionnaire to collect the sociodemographic details, Postpartum Depression Predictive Inventory – Revised version and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.

Results

10% were found to have antepartum depression and at the postpartum visit, 18.6% were found to have depression. The risk factors identified were inadequate spousal support, unsatisfactory marital relationship, poor relationship with in-laws, prenatal anxiety and depression, low self esteem, maternity blues, child care stress, infant temperament, health problems and frequent hospital visits. Among these, presence of maternity blues (OR = 30.370) and infant health problems (OR = 14.742) had the highest risk.

Conclusion

Majority of the women with PPD reported depressive symptoms in the third trimester itself, hence antenatal and postnatal women should be routinely screened for depression and managed promptly. Failing to attach significance to prolonged maternity blues and frequent infant health problems has been found to increase the risk for developing PPD significantly.

Type
Research
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S68
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Footnotes

Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.

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