Course of panic disorder during the early postpartum period: a prospective analysis.
OBJECTIVE
Most of the studies about course of panic disorder (PD) after childbirth have a retrospective nature. The aim of the current study was to examine prospectively the clinical course of 13 pregnant women with a diagnosis of PD across pregnancy and the early postpartum period.


METHODS
The diagnosis of PD was determined by means of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Axis I Disorders in the third trimester of pregnancy. Within the same period, the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale was used to determine the severity of PD. The last assessment with both instruments was performed at 6 weeks postnatally.


RESULTS
Of these 13 women, 6 (group 1) reported that PD developed during the 6th to the 28th week of their gestation, and the number of women who experienced PD symptoms before pregnancy (group 2) was 7. It was found that the severity of panic symptoms considerably decreased in the total sample, group 1, and group 2 from the basal levels to 6 weeks postnatally.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study results suggest that pregnant women with PD may experience a marked improvement in PD symptoms in the early postpartum period.
Guler
Ozkan
O
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kocatepe University, Afyon, Turkey. gulerozkan@hotmail.com <gulerozkan@hotmail.com>
Koken
Gulengul N
GN
Emul
Murat
M
Ozbulut
Omer
O
Gecici
Omer
O
Uguz
Faruk
F
Gezginc
Kazim
K
Zeytinci
Ismet E
IE
Karatayli
Savas
S
Askin
Rustem
R
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011264:Pregnancy Trimesters; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index