Obsessional thoughts and compulsive behaviors in a sample of women with postpartum mood symptoms

Postpartum psychiatric disorders are widely recognized by clinicians and researchers, yet while much attention has been paid to perinatal mood disorders, considerably less has been given to anxiety and obsessive–compulsive symptoms in this population. The present study examined anxiety and obsessive–compulsive symptoms among postpartum women with mood complaints, with the aim of delineating the relationship between these symptoms. Sixty postpartum women seeking treatment in a perinatal mood disorders clinic completed measures of depression, anxiety, and obsessive–compulsive symptoms. Obsession-like thoughts and compulsive-like (“neutralizing”) strategies were present among the majority of the sample, yet the severity of these symptoms ranged widely. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were associated with obsessive and neutralizing compulsive symptoms. It may be helpful to consider anxiety and depressive symptoms as part of a broad spectrum of perinatal psychiatric illness. Clinicians should assess for anxiety and obsessive–compulsive symptoms as routinely as they assess for depressive symptoms in the perinatal period.