PSYCHOSOCIAL VULNERABILITY TO POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION.

Educational Objectives: Maternity blues and postpartum depression (PPD) are affective disorders affecting women in the postpartum period. Many authours agree that about 10-15% of women develop PPD in the first months after delivery. The main symptoms are affective lability, anxiety, restlessness, sleep disturbance, diminished concentration or indecision, frequent thoughts of death or suicide, feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt. Recent evidence highlights that psychological factors and personality traits, such as neuroticism, self-criticism and lower selfesteem play an important role in postpartum-onset depression (1-2). Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify a range of psychosocial vulnerability factors, possibly increasing the risk of maternity blues and PPD. Methods: 110 women, consecutively recruited from the Obstetric Unit at the University Hospital of Messina, were assessed by the following psychodiagnostic instruments: Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS 20) State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2). All enrolled subjects further completed the Kennerley’s Blues Questionnaire (BQ) on day 3, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for measuring postpartum affective disorders on month 3 and 6 after delivery. Results: Statistical analysis (Pearson correlation) shows the following positive correlations among the subscales of the STAXI 2 and BQ and EPDS questionnaires: 1) T/A = BQ (p=0.001), EPDS month 3 (p=0.006), EPDS month 6 (p=0.036); 2) AE/OUT = BQ (p<0.0001); 3) AE/IN = EPDS month 3 (p=0.004), EPDS month 6 (p=0.038). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, more than specific psychological profiles, the experience and the expression of anger can be considered as antenatal vulnerability factor of PPD onset; therefore, already during pregnancy, the detection of this emotional dimension and specific psychological approaches aimed to cope with this negative emotion may be useful for preventing post-partum affective disorders.