Biomedical subjects

A J Rugg

Publications and source records attributed to A J Rugg.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1984

Psychiatric disorder in pregnancy and the first postnatal year.

We interviewed 128 women regularly during pregnancy and the first postnatal year. Psychiatric interviews identified eight 'cases' of psychiatric disorder (6 per cent) in early pregnancy and twenty 'cases' (16 per cent) at six weeks after birth. Postnatal affective disorder, which accounted for 15 of these cases, was significantly associated with dissatisfaction with the marital relationship and also with previous psychiatric history. The implications of the term 'postnatal depression' are considered in terms of the course of the disorder in the 29 women (23 per cent) who had episodes of affective disorder at some time during pregnancy and the postnatal year. We found that the majority of episodes of affective disorder could be understood in terms of previous psychiatric history and/or reaction to life-events, including the stress of childbirth itself.

Depressive Disorder↗

PubMed1984

Chronic perineal pain.

The "ideal case" for doctors dealing with acute medical or surgical patients has a clearly defined disease that is amenable to treatment. A successful outcome should make both doctor and patient happy. The truly depressing patient has no recognizable disease and little prospect of treatment. Such is frequently the case with men complaining of chronic perineal pain.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Mood changes during pregnancy and after the birth of a child.

This paper reports data obtained with five different measures of psychological change during a longitudinal study of 128 women in pregnancy and the first postnatal year. This group of women had relatively low levels of symptomatology and reported little dysfunction or distress. For the group as a whole, there were few significant changes over the course of pregnancy or over the course of the first postnatal year on the measures employed. In contrast, many scores exhibited significant change from late pregnancy to the puerperium. Without exception, the changes are in the direction of improved physical and psychological health after the birth, suggesting that most women feel better one month after the birth than one month before it. There were important differences between the patterns of change observed in individual women, confirming the fallacy of generalizing about childbearing women and emphasizing individual differences in response to this life-event.

Adult↗