PERIPARTAL COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT - SECONDARY TO DEPRESSION

Twenty pregnant women and 20 controls matched for age and IQ were test ed on a range of cognitive functions at three time points: in the last month of pregnancy, 48 hours after delivery, and four weeks after del ivery. Pregnant women obtained significantly lower scores on digit sym bol and paced auditory serial addition tests 48 hours after delivery. There were no significant differences between the groups on logical me mory, trail making or letter cancellation tasks. The degree of cogniti ve impairment was correlated with the severity of depression, and the differences between the pregnant and control groups in cognitive funct ion became nonsignificant when the effect of depression was controlled . Cognitive functions related to fluid cognitive ability are impaired in the immediate post-partum period and the severity of impairment is correlated with self-reported depression.