Article Sidebar
Published:
Feb 7, 2005Keywords:
Article Details
The entire contents of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use.
This journal content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
Obstetric Risk Factors and Subsequent Mental Health Problems in a Child Psychiatry Clinic Population in Nigeria
Abstract
Objective: To determine the prevalence and pattern of obstetric risk factors and associations with morbidity found in a child psychiatric clinic population.
Method: The study population consisted of all attendees at a newly opened child and adolescent psychiatric clinic at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. All attendees had a standardised comprehensive psychiatric assessment and an obstetric history was obtained from mothers.
Results: In the period under study, 144 children and adolescents were referred to this clinic. Obstetrical complications were found in 32 (29%) of the 112 children from whom this history was obtained. The commonest complications were birth asphyxia (11%), and emergency caesarean sections (6%). Delivery complications were associated with unskilled fathers\' (x2 =8.4; p=0.015) and mothers above 40 years of age, (x2 =9.5; p=0.011). Children with mental retardation were more likely to have suffered birth injuries (x2 =14.05; p=0.000). The highest number of obstetric complications occurred in children with disruptive behaviour disorder (42.9%), and autistic disorder (33.3%). No statistically significant relationship was found between specific groups and obstetric complications.
Conclusion:This descriptive study illustrates that obstetric complications are a contributing factor to mental health problems in children. Many of the complications could have been prevented with better health care. Further studies may also want to compare obstetric complications in this child psychiatric clinic population with a sample of children in the general population.
Key Words: obstetric risk factors, child psychiatric disorders.
[Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2004;21:15-20]
