Aims: Hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy lead to physiological changes in women. At the same time, pregnancy has often been associated with cognitive deficits. Patients with depression often complain about paying attention and encounter difficulties in learning and remembering. Studies indicate that patients with depression perform worse in tests that require long term attention. Our aim in this study is to evaluate the changes that may occur in sustained attention in healthy pregnant as well as depressed pregnant women.
Methods: Pregnant women who were randomly selected for the study were administered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Those with high scores on the EPDS were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and as a result, 25 patients with depression were included in the study. Hamilton Depression Scale was used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms. 25 healthy controls were matched for gender and level of education. Neuropsychological tests were administered to participants to measure sustained attention.
Results: It was observed that functions related to attention were affected by depression during pregnancy.
Conclusion: Depression during pregnancy may lead to serious health problems for both women and babies. This study indicated that cognitive functions of pregnant women were affected by depression as well.