title: Diagnosis and treatment of postpartum obsessions and compulsions that involve infant harm.
abstract: Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the postpartum period often include intrusive thoughts of harming the infant and rituals that result in avoidance of the baby. The differential diagnosis of women who develop these symptoms includes postpartum major mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and psychosis with infanticidal thoughts. The treatment of the most common diagnoses, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, includes serotonergic drugs, psychoeducation to help the patient understand that she is highly unlikely to harm her infant, and exposure with response prevention therapy. This intervention involves exposure of the patient to the feared situations, which are usually related to infant care, while simultaneously preventing the compulsive rituals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hudak
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Wisner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy / Q000379:methods; D007223:Infant; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis