Postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder: prevalence and clinical characteristics.
OBJECTIVE
The principal aims of this study were to examine the prevalence rate, clinical characteristics, and related factors of postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).


METHODS
The subjects were a nonclinical sample of 400 postpartum women. They were interviewed from the 2nd up to the 26th week after birth. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used for diagnosis of OCD, the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Checklist was used to determine the types of obsessions and compulsions, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders was used to diagnose comorbid depressive episode.


RESULTS
Thirty-six (9%) of the sample met the diagnostic criteria for OCD according to the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and 9 (2.3%) reported postpartum onset OCD. Obsessive-compulsive disorder was more frequent in mothers with personal history of previous psychiatric disorder, somatic disease, or obstetric complication in pregnancy/birth, and who were multiparous. The most common obsessions were aggressive, contamination and miscellaneous, and compulsion for washing/cleaning and checking, and 38.9% have a comorbid depressive episode.


CONCLUSIONS
Women have increased risk of OCD or obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the postpartum period. For this reason, all women, particularly women with previous psychiatric history, somatic disease, or with complications in pregnancy or at the birth should be carefully screened for OCD in the postpartum period.
Department of Neuropsychiatry of Federal University Pernambuco, Recife 50670901, Brazil. carlafza@hotmail.com
Carla Fonseca
CF
Zambaldi
Amaury
A
Cantilino
Ana Carla
AC
Montenegro
Juliana Alencar
JA
Paes
Thiago Lucena César
TL
de Albuquerque
Everton Botelho
EB
Sougey
D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003192:Compulsive Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010298:Parity; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors