State and trait anxiety as a psychopathological phenomenon correlated with postpartum depression in a Romanian sample: a pilot study

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the rate of postpartum depression and its correlation with both state and trait anxiety. A cross-sectional study was performed on 80 mothers monitored in the Ambulatory of “Bega” Obstetrics Clinic from Timisoara. The presence of depression was assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, using a cut-off ≥10. State anxiety was assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory and anchored visual analogue scales. Trait anxiety was dimensionally assessed using the Karolinska Scale of Personality (KSP). More than half of recruited mothers presented a global score significant for postpartum depression (N = 43, 53.8%). Both perspectives of anxiety, as a state (p < 0.001) and as personality traits (e.g. p = 0.003 for psychic anxiety), were significantly correlated with postpartum depression. Furthermore, the levels of worry related to self-perceived health status of both mother and infant were significant in mothers with postpartum depression. We can conclude that postpartum depression was a highly-frequent psychopathological phenomenon among mothers from this sample set. In addition, both state and trait anxiety were common co-occurring clinical features.

• Dimensional personality
• postpartum depressions
• psychopathology
• state anxiety
• trait anxiety

Current knowledge on this subject

• Postpartum depression has become increasingly recognized as a clinical condition, due to greater awareness, monitoring, and its more efficient detection in obstetrical settings.

• Although less studied, recently compared to perinatal depression, perinatal anxiety is a more frequently-occurring psychopathological condition, which draws the attention of clinicians in charge of pregnant and postpartum women’s care.

What this study adds

• To our knowledge, the present pilot study is the first research on the presence of postpartum depression and its associated psychopathological features among mothers in our region.

• Our data reveal the close relationship between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, from both state and trait analyses.

• The present research has outlined the high occurrence of anxiety during pregnancy and the postpartum period, quantified as subjective levels of worry about the self-perceived health status of both mother and infant, in mothers developing postpartum depression.