Abstract
This study leverages psychiatric intake data from treatment-seeking perinatal women aiming to explore the understudied associations between childhood adversity, sleep quality, and severity of perinatal mental illness in this population. The sample is 578 perinatal women presenting for initial evaluation to a university-based perinatal psychiatry clinic. At intake, we collected demographics, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), sleep quality, and diagnosis and symptom severity of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clinician-rated diagnoses showed that 65% of women met criteria for major depression, 23% for generalized anxiety disorder and 4% for PTSD; almost 30% of women had childhood adversity and 98.2% reported poor perinatal sleep quality. Regression analyses revealed differential associations between ACEs and sleep quality and perinatal mood symptoms; ACEs were significantly associated with pregnancy and postpartum PTSD, whereas sleep quality was associated with perinatal depression and generalized anxiety. Screening for ACEs and sleep quality during perinatal intake has high clinical utility, as these two factors significantly contribute to symptom severity across peripartum.
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20 April 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01321-4
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Acknowledgements
WIMH Group (Women and Infants Mental Health Group) comprises all faculty, staff, and trainees who are serving perinatal women presenting for specialized clinical care to the Women and Infants Mental Health Clinic at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan.
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Financial support was provided via internal funds through the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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The original online version of this article was revised due to changes of author name from Greta Reglan to Greta Raglan.
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Menke, R.A., Swanson, L., Erickson, N.L. et al. Childhood adversity and sleep are associated with symptom severity in perinatal women presenting for psychiatric care. Arch Womens Ment Health 22, 457–465 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0914-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0914-2