Abstract

SUNDAY, Ezeme M.; OKOLI, Paul C.  and  DINWOKE, Vincent O.. Level of awareness and treatment of anxiety and depression during pregnancy in southeast Nigeria. S. Afr. j. psyc. [online]. 2018, vol.24, n.1, pp.1-5. ISSN 2078-6786.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v24i0.1192.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depressive disorders are somewhat masked by features of pregnancy; hence many women are ignorant of them and are untreated. AIM: To determine the level of awareness and treatment of anxiety and depression in pregnancy. SETTING: The study was carried out at the antenatal clinic of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study of 200 pregnant women in consecutive attendance of the antenatal clinic using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the participants, 23.5% had anxiety and/or depression, 7.5% of them were aware of their condition and only 0.5% of all the participants or 6.7% of those who were aware of their problem received treatment. CONCLUSION: Anxiety and depression are prevalent among pregnant women. Because of overlap of symptoms of anxiety and depression with those of pregnancy, the awareness is very low; hence many of them suffer immensely without treatment.

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