Perinatal suicidality: Risk factors in South African women with mental illness

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Perinatal suicidality: Risk factors in South African women with mental illness
 
Creator du Toit, Elsa Niehaus, Dana Jordaan, Esme Koen, Liezl Jones, Roxane Leppanen, Jukka
 
Subject Psychiatry maternal mental health, perinatal psychiatry, suicidality, maternal mortality, unplanned pregnancy
Description Background: Maternal Mortality is a global health concern. The lack of suicide data, particularly in low and middle income countries, is concerning and needs to be addressed.Aim: This study assessed suicidality and associated factors during pregnancy and the postpartum period amongst women with known psychiatric diagnoses.Setting: The study sample included pregnant South African women over the age of 18 years with a psychiatric disorder who presented at two maternal mental health clinics.Method: Suicidality was assessed by means of psychiatric interviews – the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale.Results: The results revealed that women were at a higher risk of experiencing suicidality if they had attempted suicide before, presented at a later gestation for psychiatric care or were employed. It was also clear that multiple assessments, carried out by means of clinical interviews and various scales, were necessary to screen suicidality successfully in pregnant women diagnosed with psychiatric illness.Conclusion: The results confirmed the view of the World Health Organization that in order to promote mental health and well-being, women’s health should be viewed contextually, not in isolation. Screening for and treatment of perinatal mental illness, including suicidality, are essential if we hope to meet the maternal morbidity and mortality targets of the United Nations by 2030.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-08-24
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Longitudinal follow up study
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v26i0.1412
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 26 (2020); 8 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1412/1741 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1412/1740 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1412/1742 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1412/1739
 
Coverage Cape Town Private and Public maternal mental health clinics 2013-Nov 2018 Pregnant females known with mental illness
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Elsa du Toit, Dana Niehaus, Esme Jordaan, Liezl Koen, Roxane Jones, Jukka Leppanen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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