Postnatal Emotional Disorders in Nigerian Women

Abstract

One hundred and sixty-two women were evaluated for psychiatric morbidity in the second trimester of pregnancy and also six to eight weeks postnatally. A sizeable proportion of the women also had a second prenatal assessment in their third trimester and in the lying-in ward shortly after giving birth. Assessments were conducted with the 28-item GHQ. This was initially validated using a subsample of 106 women, taken from the original group, who were interviewed with the PAS. Thirty per cent of the women were 'cases' at the first prenatal assessment, while only 14% were 'cases' six to eight weeks postnatally. Thus, even though there was an overlap between prenatal and postnatal morbidity, there was also substantial difference between the groups that were symptomatic at both periods. This observation was reinforced by the low correlation between the mean GHQ scores at both periods. Both prenatal and postnatal morbidities were associated with recent adverse life events, with the latter more likely to be associated with marital and family events. This observation is in support of the view that neurotic problems, prenatally or postnatally, are caused mainly by psychosocial factors.

Predicting postnatal mental disorder with a screening questionnaire: a prospective cohort study from Zimbabwe

“…The high prevalence of disorder has been ascribed to the breakup of the traditional support networks, resulting from rapid urbanisation and economic diYculties in many African countries. 7 Furthermore, women may be more worried before childbirth because of concerns about a successful outcome 5 and this may account for the association of a history of miscarriages and current medical problems with psychological morbidity in this study. Psychological morbidity in the later stages of pregnancy was also associated with marital disharmony, having three or more children at home, and the mother residing in rural areas.…”

“…5 6 Aderibibge et al in a study of women attending antenatal care at the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria found 30% of women had a prenatal psychiatric disorder and 14% had postnatal psychiatric disorder. 7 Research for accurate predictors of postnatal mental illness can take two directions: firstly, there is growing evidence that postnatal disorders are often associated with psychological morbidity in the late antenatal period and early postnatal period. 2 Secondly, putative risk factors for postnatal depression, such as a complicated delivery and previous history of depression, may be used as predictors.…”

Screening for postnatal depression in Bengali women: Preliminary observations from using a translated version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)

“…It has also been translated into a number of Asian languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Japanese, although there does not appear to be any literature reporting its validation in non-Western countries. However, comparable prevalence rates of postnatal depression (10± 14%) have been reported in studies in Uganda (Cox, 1979(Cox, , 1983 and in Nigeria (Aderibigbe et al, 1993). Despite these findings, it remains uncertain whether this screening methodology would be appropriate for Bengali families.…”

Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity using GHQ-28 among cleft lip patients in Sokoto

“…It has been validated and extensively used in research studies in Nigeria. [15][16][17] The instrument is a very important tool as it detects psychological symptoms which do not reach diagnostic threshold. [15] The GHQ-28…”