Psychotherapy as Adjunct in Treatment of Vomiting During Pregnancy

Übelkeit und Erbrechen in der Frühschwangerschaft/Hyperemesis gravidarum - Aktueller Stand zu psychosomatischen Faktoren -

“…Während vor einigen Jahren eine strenge Trennung der einzelnen psychotherapeutischen Schulen bestand, gehen derzeitige Ansätze dazu über, sinnvolle Therapietechniken aus verschiedenen Schulen z. B. aus Hypnose, Verhaltens-und stützender Psychotherapie zu kombinieren [29].…”

“…Schwangere eignen sich besonders gut für Kurztherapieformen, da sie i. a. hochmotiviert sind und in gutem Kontakt zu unbewussten Prozessen stehen [29,59]. Vorteil dieser Methode ist, dass ein klar umrissenes Therapieziel gut mit der meist begrenzten zeitlichen Dauer der Manifestation von Symptomen einhergeht [14,15].…”

Psychiatric Aspects of Hyperemesis gravidarum

“…Also, many health care professionals have become interested in the nonmedical treatment of HG because of the difficulty in taking drugs due to the strong vomiting reflex, the potentially ad verse reactions of pharmacotherapy during pregnancy and the prohibitive costs of inpa tient medical treatment. Historically, most cases seem to have responded to removal from home, medical reassurance, compas sionate nursing and attention to the fluid and electrolyte disturbances (main therapeutic concern) that result from vomiting [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], Henker [15] reported better results in a group of 10 women with HG given combined therapy (supportive psychotherapy, hypno therapy, behavior modification and medical therapy), than in a similarly affected control group (n = 10) of routine treatment. Based on this small controlled study, he suggested that psychological intervention can augment rou tine medical measures in alleviating HG.…”

“…It has been postulated that pregnant wom en are ideal candidates for brief psycho therapy, being both highly motivated to change before the birth and uniquely in touch with their unconscious processes [15,16,23]. Indeed, Leff [23] suggested that pregnancy is a preparation for motherhood and failure to make use of pregnancy in this way leads to distortions in the postnatal mother-infant in teraction.…”

“…Psychotherapeutic mea sures include compatible warm acceptance, ventilation, reassurance and some superficial insight. The treatment should involve the identification and amelioration of some com mon sources of anxiety during pregnancy [15,16], Practically, however, HG patients require urgent treatment in order to avoid complica tions which might endanger the pregnancy and the wellbeing of the mother.…”