POSTNATAL EMOTIONAL DISORDERS IN NIGERIAN WOMEN - A STUDY OF ANTECEDENTS AND ASSOCIATIONS

One hundred and sixty-two women were evaluated for psychiatric morbidi ty in the second trimester of pregnancy and also six to eight weeks po stnatally. A sizeable proportion of the women also had a second prenat al assessment in their third trimester and in the lying-in ward shortl y after giving birth. Assessments were conducted with the 28-item GHQ. This was initially validated using a subsample of 106 women, taken fr om the original group, who were interviewed with the PAS. Thirty per c ent of the women were 'cases' at the first prenatal assessment, while only 14% were 'cases' six to eight weeks postnatally. Thus, even thoug h there was an overlap between prenatal and postnatal morbidity, there was also substantial difference between the groups that were symptoma tic at both periods. This observation was reinforced by the low correl ation between the mean GHQ scores at both periods. Both prenatal and p ostnatal morbidities were associated with recent adverse life events, with the latter more likely to be associated with marital and family e vents. This observation is in support of the view that neurotic proble ms, prenatally or postnatally, are caused mainly by psychosocial facto rs.