Study of psychiatric disorders among fertile and infertile women and some predisposing factors

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine prevalence and predisposing factors of psychiatric disorders among infertile in comparison to fertile women.
Materials and Methods:  By a descriptive- analytic study in Vali-e-asr Reproductive Health Research Center, 300 women entered the research.   Symptom Checklist -90 -Revised (SCL-90-R) test and structured researcher questionnaires were applied for all patients. Demographic characteristics and predisposing psychological and personality factors were recorded and psychological symptoms were scaled. For data analysis, SPSS-11-5 software system, chi-square and T-test were used.  P-value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Results showed that 44% of infertile and 28.7% of fertile women had psychiatric disorders. Using SCL-90-R test, the highest mean scores among infertile women were found for paranoid ideation, depression and interpersonal sensitivity scales and the lowest scores were related to psychoticism and phobic anxiety scales. Interpersonal sensitivity, depression, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideas and psychoticism scales were significantly different between infertile and fertile women (p<0.05). Housewives were at a statistically significant higher risk for psychiatric disorders as compared to working women (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders among infertile women mandates a more serious attention from gynecologists, psychiatrists and psychologists regarding to diagnosis and treatment of these disorders.