Sanjoy Tripura1, Bhubaneswar Roy2, Ashis Kumar Rakshit3
BACKGROUND
Majority of pregnancies have uncomplicated and healthy outcomes. Pregnancy
involves biological, psychological and social changes that have been linked to an
increase in anxiety and depression symptoms. Depression and anxiety have been
found to be exacerbated by uncertainty during high risk pregnancies in women
suffering from a medical disorder. In this study we wanted to find out the incidence
of depression and anxiety among high-risk pregnancies in tribal and non-tribal
patients.
METHODS
This is cross sectional observational study conducted in the Department of
Psychiatry and Obstetrics (OBS) and Gynaecology of Agartala Govt Medical College
and GBP Hospital from January 2015 to December 2015. All the cases who have
been diagnosed as a high-risk pregnancy attending the out-patient department
(OPD) of OBS & Gynaecology or admitted at in-patient department (IPD) of OBS
& Gynaecology department were selected for the study. After care full history,
thorough physical examination and relevant laboratory investigations, diagnosis of
high-risk pregnancy was made. After initial workup, Edinburg Postnatal Depression
scale (EPDS) proforma and generalised anxiety disorder 7-item (GAD - 7) proforma
were administered to know the depression and anxiety symptoms. Research on
mental health of pregnant tribal women are not much in number, especially in
north eastern region of India. Hence the present study was under taken.
RESULTS
Majority of the high-risk pregnant women (70 %) were from rural background and
lower middle socioeconomic status (39 %). Depressive symptoms in the high-risk
pregnant women were 42 % and anxiety symptoms were 70 %. Significant
correlation was observed between anxiety symptoms and locality of resident and
between depressive symptoms and socioeconomic status.
CONCLUSIONS
One should be conscious and vigilant about possibility of anxiety and depression
symptoms while dealing with high risk pregnant women, so that early treatment
may be initiated.
