Epidemiology of psychiatric disorders among pregnant women attending antenatal care in rural areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy brings about an enormous change in women on physical, social and psychological aspects. To adopt these changes, women become vulnerable to different psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and anxiety. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among pregnant women is ranged from 10% to 32% that has a negative impact on general health of women as well as development of children. This study was aimed to find out the prevalence of possible psychiatric disorders among pregnant women and to delineate its relationship with socio-demographic variables, physical health, and pregnancy-related factors. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative, one-staged survey-type study was conducted from January to March 2018. Through consecutive sampling, confirmed pregnant women attending antenatal care in rural area aged between 18 and above were supplied a structured questionnaire containing sociodemographic and related variables and Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ)-20 for screening psychopathology of the cases. Subjects were divided into screen-positive and screen-negative cases, and a comparison was made. Results: The mean age of the cases was 24.76 ± 5.2 years. Using SRQ-20 cutoff, the prevalence of possible psychiatric disorders among the respondents was 27.5% and that was found to be 20.19%, 24.07%, and 23.28% in first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. Anxiety and depressive symptom category were significantly higher followed by somatic symptom and reduced vital energy categories among screen-positive cases than screen-negative cases. A good number of pregnancy-related variables both the social and physical were found to be significantly associated with possible psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: This study explores and supports the wide magnitude of the possibility of mental health disorders during pregnancy, predominantly depression and anxiety. There should have a provision of the routine screening of psychopathology for all pregnant women with the aim toward early identification and treatment.