Pretreatment Beck Depression Inventory score is an important predictor for post-treatment score in infertile patients: a before-after study.
BACKGROUND
The experience of infertility can be extremely stressful. Some of the risk factors for depression in infertility are being female, repeated unsuccessful treatment cycles or a 2 to 3 year history of infertility, low socioeconomic status, foreign nationality, lack of partner support, life events and previous depression. In this study, we analyzed the Beck Depression Inventory score at the beginning and the end of infertility treatment, to determine which factors may influence the BDI score after treatment of infertility.


METHODS
In a before-after study, in a university-affiliated teaching hospital, 251 women who had been visited for assisted reproductive technology infertility treatment participated in the study. BDI score was assessed before and after treatment of infertility.


RESULTS
The mean BDI score rose after unsuccessful treatment and dropped after successful treatment. Those with lower education levels had a higher BDI score before treatment. BDI score after treatment was positively correlated with pretreatment BDI scoreand duration of infertility.


CONCLUSIONS
BDI score after treatment was strongly connected to the BDI score before treatment, the result of therapy and to the duration of infertility. The influence of duration of infertility on BDI score after treatment of infertility is weak. So a simple method to screen patients at risk of depression after infertility treatment is determining pretreatment BDI score and predicting the result of infertility treatment by other risk factors.
Khademi
Afsaneh
A
Infertility Ward, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, North Kargar Street, Tehran, 14114, I R Iran. afkhademi@sina.tums.ac.ir <afkhademi@sina.tums.ac.ir>
Alleyassin
Ashraf
A
Aghahosseini
Marzieh
M
Ramezanzadeh
Fatemeh
F
Abhari
Ali Ahmadi
AA
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008016:Life Change Events; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires