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Postpartum psychosis: a study of indoor cases in a general hospital psychiatric clinic
Author(s) -
Agrawal P.,
Bhatia M. S.,
Malik S. C.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1990.tb05501.x
Subject(s) - psychosis , medicine , postpartum psychosis , psychiatry , psychiatric history , prospective cohort study , pediatrics , pregnancy , family history , bipolar disorder , surgery , epilepsy , cognition , biology , genetics
In a prospective study, 144 consecutive indoor cases of puerperal psychosis were assessed. Their mean age was 24.6 years. A past and a family history of psychosis was present in 12 cases each. According to RDC criteria, a majority of the patients had unspecified functional psychosis. A majority of the cases developed psychosis after the birth of a first child. Puerperal psychosis showed a positive correlation with the birth of a female child. Most of these cases developed psychiatric illness in the first 2 weeks after delivery. When the prevalence of symptoms in the study group was compared with the age‐and disease‐matched nonpuerperal controls, several differences were statistically significant.