PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS FOLLOWING CHILDBIRTH A CLINICAL STUDY OF 34 CASES

The study comprises of 34 cases, who developed psychiatric illness following childbirth. The diagnostic breakup reveals that 50% cases were of schizophrenia, 35.4% of affective disorder, 11.7% of organic confusional state and 2.9% of hysteria. Age of the patients ranged from 17 to 35 years, average being 24.2 years. 20.5% cases gave history of psychiatric illness in 1st degree relatives. All cases of organic psychosis, 41.6% of the affective disorder and 29.4% of the schizophrenia group had one or more of the physical complications during pregnancy, around delivery or during post-partum period. 25.2% of the cases had previous psychiatric illness following childbirth. 52.9% of the cases developed psychiatric illness in the 1st fortnight after delivery. The result of the treatment was highly satisfactory, showing improvement of all the patients included in this study.