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Updated: Aug 22, 2026
Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Screening for post-miscarriage psychiatric morbidity
Ingrid H Lok1, Dominic T S Lee, Shing-Kai Yip
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China. ingridlok@cuhk.edu.hk
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in screening for psychiatric morbidity after miscarriage.
Study Design:
A prospective cohort study was carried out involving 222 patients. Six weeks after miscarriage, the GHQ-12 was applied. Psychiatric "case" or "non-case" was diagnosed by the psychiatrist with use of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-R. The patients were computer randomized into Groups A or B. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed for Group A. The optimal cutoff value of GHQ-12 was determined, and this value was applied to Group B. The test characteristics were assessed.
Results:
Twenty-seven patients were found to be psychiatric cases. An ROC with area under curve of 0.93 (95% CI 0.87-0.99, P<.001) was constructed. The best GHQ-12 cutoff score was > or =4 in detecting psychiatric caseness. A sensitivity of 83%, specificity of 90%, positive predictive value of 50%, and negative predictive value of 98% were obtained.
Conclusion:
GHQ-12 is an effective screening tool in detecting psychiatric morbidity after miscarriage.
