Abstract
Background and Objectives: Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders which involve women two times more than men. Pregnancy accompanied by other predisposing factors can result in onset or exacerbation of depression. Fifteen percent of depressed patients finally commit suicide. The aims of this study is to find the relationship between depression and age, level of education, economic status, gravidity, gestational age, emotional relationship with partner, and occupational stauts.
Material and Methods: This is a descriptive study which was carried on 300 pregnant women. Data were collected by Zung questionnaire which was completed by pregnant women. The data analysed by Chi-square test and SPSS software.
Results: In this study 32% of pregnant women were suffered from depression. among this group 22.33% had mild depression, 6.67% moderate depression, and 3% severe depression. Following conditions were related with high frequency of depression: poor economic status, primigravidity, having more than three pregnancies, unemployment, and poor emotional relationship with partner. There wasn’t significant difference between depression and age group, level of education, and gestational age.
Conclusion: Prevalance of depression in pregnancy is reported in textbooks up to 22%, but in our study and similar studies in our country prevalence of depression is higher. We found significant relationship between depression and poor economic status, primigravidity, having more than three pregrancies, and poor Emotional relationship with partner (p.value 0.05).