Anxiety and depression of high risk pregnant women hospitalized in two public hospital settings in Greece

Abstract

Objective: Many studies have examined the prevalence of anxiety and depression in low-risk pregnant women. However, very few studies have explored the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in high-risk pregnancy. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of antenatal anxiety (AA) and antenatal depression (AD) in high-risk pregnant women hospitalized for a medical disorder.Methods: The sample of this study consisted of 133 pregnant women with gestational age from 9 to 37 weeks. Anxiety was measured with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and depression was measured with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Descriptive statistics, such as means, standard deviations, and frequencies, were used.Results: The means for STAI-state and -trait scores were 49.3 and 45.1, respectively. The mean score for EPDS was 12.5. Nine percent of the participants have answered that quite often or sometimes had the thought of harming themselves. Almost 50% of participants had depressive symptoms (EPDS >11) and the majority of participants had high anxiety level.Conclusion: The prevalence of antenatal anxiety and depression identified in this study is of concern. Screening tools for detecting antenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms in high-risk pregnant is crucial.