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Childbirth: Life Event or Start of a Long-Term Difficulty?

Further Data from the Stoke-on-Trent Controlled Study of Postnatal Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Declan Murray ,
John L. Cox ,
Gail Chapman  and
Peter Jones
Declan Murray*
Affiliation:
St Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Co. Dublin, Ireland
John L. Cox
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Postgraduate Medicine, University of Keele
Gail Chapman
Affiliation:
North Staffordshire Maternity Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent
Peter Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Keele
*
Dr Murray, St Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Co. Dublin, Ireland
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Abstract

Background

This paper reports further data from the Stoke study of postnatal depression and examines whether psychosocial characteristics and symptom profiles differ between postnatal and control depression.

Method

Two hundred and thirty-two postnatal and non-postnatal control women were screened with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; all high scorers and a sample of low scorers were interviewed with the Standardised Psychiatric Interview and modified Social Maladjustment Schedule. Depression was diagnosed using the Research Diagnostic Criteria.

Results

Postnatal but not control depression was associated with a poor relationship with the woman's own mother and greater occupational instability. Depression in control women was associated with low income, having three or more children, performing manual work and occupational dissatisfaction, but postnatal depression was not. There were no differences in the symptom profiles of the postnatal and control women nor between early and late onset postnatal depression.

Conclusion

Depression is a common and socially disabling disorder affecting mothers of young children. Postnatal depression is more contingent on acute biopsychosocial stresses caused by the arrival of a new family member. Depression in women with older children is more closely related to longer term social adversity.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 166 , Issue 5 , May 1995 , pp. 595 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995 

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