Post-traumatic stress disorder and congenital anomalies in prenatal care

his is a quantitative and cross-correlational study. The sample consisted of 111 pregnant women diagnosed with congenital anomaly between 2013 and 2014. We used a semi-structured questionnaire and the Impact of Events Scale - Revised (IES-R). For statistical analysis, the chi-square test, Student’s t test or Mann-Whitney test, Cronbach Alpha coefficients, Pearson’s correlation and simple linear regression models.

Results:

viable congenital anomalies corresponded to 66.6%, and non-viable, to 33.3%. The average of all areas of IES-R, as well as the sum of matters concerning IES-R, were high in all pregnant women diagnosed with congenital anomaly. Using a cut of 5.6 units in the IES-Rtotal score, we found that 46.8% of pregnant women diagnosed with a congenital anomaly showed PTSD symptoms; however, symptoms were more frequent among pregnant women diagnosed with non-viable congenital anomaly (64.9%). The IES-R intrusion and hyperstimulation dimensions were more correlated. We observed a decreasing connection with PTSD symptoms in relation to the time of the notification of congenital anomaly diagnosis.

Conclusions:

PTSD symptoms were more frequent in pregnant women diagnosed with non-viable congenital anomaly.

Key words:
Congenital abnormalities; Pregnant women; Prenatal diagnosis; Stress disorder; Post-traumatic

Domain	Group	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Standard deviation	Median	1^st quartile	3^rd quartile	p^* * Student’s t test.
Avoidance	All	111	0,0	4,0	1,70	0,93	1,75	0,88	2,31	<0,001
	Non-viable	37	0,4	4,0	2,25	0,89	2,38	1,75	2,88
	Viable	74	0,0	3,3	1,43	0,82	1,38	0,66	2,00
Intrusion	All	111	0,0	3,8	1,97	1,06	2,00	1,13	2,94	0,012
	Non-viable	37	0,3	3,8	2,32	0,99	2,25	1,75	3,13
	Viable	74	0,0	3,8	1,79	1,05	1,75	0,88	2,69
Hyperstimulation	All	111	0,0	3,7	1,57	1,09	1,33	0,67	2,50	0,009
	Non-viable	37	0,0	3,7	1,95	1,05	2,00	1,17	2,67
	Viable	74	0,0	3,7	1,38	1,07	1,08	0,50	2,17
General domain	All	111	0,5	10,8	5,24	2,78	5,13	3,00	7,29	<0,001
	Non-viable	37	0,8	10,8	6,52	2,61	6,54	4,96	8,58
	Viable	74	0,5	10,5	4,60	2,66	4,31	2,39	6,64
Sum of questions	All	111	4,0	80,0	38,69	20,05	38,00	23,00	53,00	<0,001
	Non-viable	37	6,0	80,0	48,14	18,98	50,00	37,00	62,00
	Viable	74	4,0	77,0	33,96	18,98	32,00	18,50	47,75

Congenital anomaly	PTSD symptoms in pregnant women (General Domain >5.6)
	No		Yes		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Non-viable	13	35.1	24	64.9	37	100.0
Viable	46	62.2	28	37.8	74	100.0
Total	59	53.2	52	46.8	111	100.0

Factor	Df	Sum of squares	Medium squares	F	p
Diagnosis time	1	82.790	82.788	12.822	0.001
Congenital anomaly diagnosis	1	71.910	71.905	11.136	0.001
Time: fetal diagnosis (interaction)	1	4.560	4.564	0.707	0.402
Residues	107	690.88	6.457

Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira Rua dos Coelhos, 300. Boa Vista, 50070-550 Recife PE Brasil, Tel./Fax: +55 81 2122-4141 - Recife - PR - Brazil
E-mail: revista@imip.org.br

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[TFN1] ^*
Student’s t test.