Psychiatric Morbidity in Infertility Patients in a Tertiary Care Setup.
BACKGROUND
Infertility is regarded as a trigger for psychological morbidity. Infertile couples often suffer from anxiety, depression and lack of self confidence.


OBJECTIVE
To study the demographic factors associated with infertility in a tertiary care setup and to determine the level of anxiety and depression associated with it by using standardized scales. The study protocol also included studying the various coping strategies employed by these patient groups.


METHODS
Case control study.


METHODS
A prestructured questionnaire based study conducted for a span of 6 months. The study population included the patients attending the infertility and the family planning outpatient department. We applied the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) and the Becks Depression Inventory (BDI). Brief COPE Inventory was applied to look for the various coping measures that are employed by the anxious and depressed patients.


METHODS
Data analysis was done using SPSS ver20.


RESULTS
A total of 280 study subjects were included in the study; which included 140 women from the infertility clinic and 140 from the family planning OPD. A total of 56.4% (79/140) of the females were found to be suffering from depression and 68.9% (96/140) of the females were found to be suffering from anxiety and depression both. Seven risk factors were found to be significant for depression based on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scale and 6 risk factors were found to be significant based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The most common coping method employed by depressed women was venting 72.2% (57/79) followed by behavioural disengagement 70.9% (56/79); whereas the most important coping method employed by the anxious and depressed women was behavioural disengagement 71.9% (69/96).


CONCLUSIONS
Anxiety and depression is common among patients suffering from infertility and measures should be taken to alleviate it.
Assistant Professor & Specialist, Department of Psychiatry, VMMC & Safdarjang Hospital , New Delhi, India .
Pankaj
P
Verma
Head of Department, Department of Psychiatry, VMMC & Safdarjang Hospital , New Delhi, India .
Rajesh
R
Rastogi
Resident, Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, United States .
Soumya
S
Sachdeva
Senior Resident, Department of Psychiatry, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital , New Delhi, India .
Raghu
R
Gandhi
Resident, Department of Pediatrics, St John Providence Childrens Hospital Detroit, Michigan, United States .
Rohit
R
Kapoor
Medical Student, Maulana Azad Medical College , New Delhi, India .
Sarthak
S
Sachdeva
Beck depression inventory; Coping strategies; Hospital anxiety and depression scale