By Joe Gramigna, Healio News, February 19, 2021
Prevalence rates of clinically relevant depression and anxiety have been “extremely high” among postnatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results published in Journal of Psychiatric Research.
“There had been no data published examining mental health in new mothers during COVID-19 at the time of study,” Victoria Fallon, FHEA, CPsychol, of the department of psychology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, told Healio Psychiatry.“As perinatal mental health researchers, we are already aware that the postnatal period can be a time during which mothers are vulnerable to the development or worsening of mental health related concerns. The lockdown restrictions included reduced access to care and services, and limited or no social contact with family and friends. This was something we hypothesized would be associated with an increase in mental health problems for new mothers.”
Fallon and colleagues sought to evaluate women’s psychosocial experiences during the early postnatal period; pinpoint prevalence rates of clinically relevant maternal anxiety and depression; and assess the predictive capacity of the psychosocial change that occurred as a result of COVID-19 for clinically relevant maternal anxiety and depression. They recruited via convenience sampling 614 UK mothers with infants aged between birth and 12 weeks who participated in a cross-sectional survey. The survey obtained data on demographics, COVID-19 specific questions and a battery of validated psychosocial measures, such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory–State (STAI-S) scale to collect prevalence rates of clinically relevant depression and anxiety, respectively. The researchers’ data collection coincided with U.K. government’s initial mandated lockdown restrictions and the introduction of social distancing measures in 2020.
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