Anxiety, dysphoria, and depression symptoms in mothers of preterm infants

Flávia Helena Pereira Padovani1, Ana Emília Vita Carvalho, Geraldo Duarte

  • 1Faculty of Philosophy, Science, and Arts of Ribeirão Preto University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Psychological Reports
|July 21, 2009
PubMed

To compare presence and severity of clinical symptoms of anxiety, dysphoria, and depression in mothers of preterm and of full-term infants and to observe changes in symptoms of mothers of preterm infants during hospitalization of the infants and after discharge, 50 mothers of preterm infants and 25 mothers of full-term infants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. The mothers with preterm infants had significantly higher clinical symptoms of State Anxiety during hospitalization than the group with full-term infants, but the clinical symptoms of anxiety in mothers of preterm infants decreased significantly after discharge. The health staff in a neonatal intensive care unit should not only be aware of infants' clinical status but also of the mothers' emotional state.

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