Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T20:30:43.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The social and obstetric correlates of psychiatric admission in the puerperium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

R. E. Kendell ,
D. Rennie ,
J. A. Clarke  and
C. Dean
R. E. Kendell*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
D. Rennie
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
J. A. Clarke
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
C. Dean
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor R. E. Kendell, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 SHF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Computer linkage of obstetric and psychiatric record systems made it possible to identify all women resident in the city of Edinburgh who had given birth to live or stillborn children in 1971–7 and to study (a) the distribution of psychiatric admissions relative to the time of childbirth and (b) the correlates of psychiatric admission in the first 90 days after childbirth. Having a first baby, being unmarried and undergoing Caesarian section were all associated with an increased risk of admission; twin births, perinatal death and maternal age were not. It is difficult to account for these and other established relationships purely in psychological or purely in somatic terms, suggesting that influences of both kinds are probably involved in the genesis of puerperal disorders.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , May 1981 , pp. 341 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballinger, C. B., Buckley, D. E., Naylor, G. J. & Stansfield, D. A. (1979). Emotional disturbance following childbirth: clinical findings and urinary excretion of cyclic AMP. Psychological Medicine 9, 293–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bratfos, O. & Haug, J. O. (1966). Puerperal mental disorders in manic depressive females. Acta psychiarrica scandinavica 42, 285–294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewer, C. (1977). Incidence of post-abortion psychosis: a prospective study. British Medical Journal i, 476–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockington, I. F., Schofield, E. M., Donnelly, P. & Hyde, C. (1978). A clinical study of post-partum psychosis. In Mental Illness in Pregnancy and the Puerperium (ed. Sandler, M.), pp. 59–68. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978). Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock Publications: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Esquirol, E. (1845). Mental Maladies: a Treatise on Insanity (trans. Hunt, E. K.). Lea and Blanchard: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Foundeur, M., Fixsen, C., Triebel, W. A. & White, M. A. (1957). Postpartum mental illness: a controlled study. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 77, 503–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grundy, P. F. & Roberts, C. J. (1975). Observations on the epidemiology of postpartum mental illness. Psychological Medicine 5, 286–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handley, S. L., Dunn, T. L., Waldron, G. & Baker, J. M. (1980). Tryptophan, cortisol and puerperal mood. British Journal of Psychiatry 136, 498–508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heasman, M. A. & Clarke, J. A. (1979). Medical record linkage in Scotland. Health Bulletin 37, 97–103.Google ScholarPubMed
Hemphill, R. E. (1952). Incidence and nature of puerperal psychiatric illness. British Medical Journal ii, 1232–1235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendell, R. E., Wainwright, S., Hailey, A. & Shannon, B. (1976). The influence of childbirth on psychiatric morbidity. Psychological Medicine 6, 297–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marcé, L. V. (1858). Traité de la Folie des Femmes Enceintes, des Nouvelles Accouchées et des Nourices. Baillière et fils: Paris.Google Scholar
Nott, P. M., Franklin, M., Armitage, C. & Gelder, M. G. (1976). Hormonal changes and mood in the puerperium. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 379–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paffenbarger, R. S. (1964). Epidemiological aspects of parapartum mental illness. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 18, 189–195.Google ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S. (1978). Contribution of life events to causation of psychiatric illness. Psychological Medicine 8, 245–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Dienelt, M. N., Klerman, O. L., Lindenthal, J. J. & Pepper, M. P. (1969). Life events and depression: a controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry 21, 753–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Protheroe, C. (1969). Puerperal psychoses: a long term study 1927–1961. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 9–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pugh, T. F., Jerath, B. K., Schmidt, W. M. & Reed, R. B. (1963). Rates of mental disease related to childbearing. New England Journal of Medicine 268, 1224–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reich, T. & Winokur, G. (1970). Postpartum psychoses in patients with manic depressive disease. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 151, 60–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, N. (1978). Depression in mothers of young children. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 71, 489–493.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, A. (1974). Some new techniques for epidemic monitoring. Medicine 35, 2052–2054.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders (3rd edn). New York State Psychiatric Institute: New York.Google Scholar
Tetlow, C. (1955). Psychoses of childbearing. Journal of Mental Science 101, 629–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, C. L. & Gordon, J. E. (1959). Psychosis after childbirth: ecological aspects of a single impact stress. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 238, 363–388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tietze, C. & Lewit, S. (1972). Joint program for the study of abortion: early medical complications of legal abortion. Studies in Family Planning 3, 97–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vislie, H. (1956). Puerperal mental disorders. Actapsychiatrica et neurologica scandinavica Suppl. 111.Google Scholar