This page was translated automatically from Turkish. Read the original

This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV1022

The two-year postpartum course of maternal mental health: its impact on marital satisfaction

MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH TRAJECTORIES TWO YEARS POSTPARTUM: IMPACT ON MARITAL SATISFACTION

Postpartum depression and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress symptoms increase markedly in the second year, and symptoms emerging later are particularly associated with lower marital satisfaction.

The aim was to assess the course of childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and postpartum depression (PPD) over up to two years, and the impact of these trajectories on marital satisfaction, in a Brazilian sample. At T1 (6 to 12 weeks postpartum), 651 women were assessed, and 330 women were reassessed in the second year (T2); the CityBiTS (childbirth-related PTSD), EPDS (postpartum depression), and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale were used. The mean age of the sample was 31 years, 82.8% had more than 12 years of education, and 83.3% were living with their spouse. Among participants, 30.3% met DSM-5 Criterion A in relation to childbirth; PTSD symptoms, defined as CityBiTS >28, were present in 6.7% at T1 and 11.9% at T2. The PTSD trajectory groups comprised resilience (81.3%), new onset (incidence; 8.2%), persistence (3.6%), and remission (2.4%). The proportion with EPDS >10 increased from 27.0% at T1 to 46.1% at T2; the reported PPD trajectories were new onset (25.1%), persistence (19.7%), remission (2.4%), and resilience (52.1%). Regarding marital satisfaction, early (T1) PPD was associated with lower satisfaction (p = 0.04), late (T2) PPD with the greatest reduction (p = 0.003), and late PTSD with lower satisfaction (p = 0.05); no significant association was found for early PTSD. In conclusion, the findings emphasize that screening should extend beyond the early postpartum period and that couple-focused care is needed because maternal psychological distress directly undermines relationship quality.

All WCP 2026 summaries