Correlación entre el abuso del alcohol durante el embarazo y la depresión posparto: Estudio transversal en mujeres puérperas de Guayaquil, Ecuador

Abstract

Postpartum depression is the most common psychiatric condition after childbirth; on the other hand, alcohol has become a public health problem considering that 1 in 10 (9.8%) women in the general population consumes alcohol during pregnancy. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in which 657 postpartum women hospitalized in the Gynecology and Obstetrics area of the Hospital General Guasmo Sur in Guayaquil, Ecuador were interviewed. Three tests were performed: the Edinburgh Test for symptoms of postpartum depression, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification to detect alcohol dependence and the Beck Depression Inventory to identify cases of depression. The prevalence of probable postpartum depression was 22.2%, of which 85.6% of the women were between 18-30 years of age. Of which 43.8% had moderate depression and 11.0% had major depression. It was also observed that 9.3% of the postpartum women had alcohol dependence, 85.2% of whom were between 18-30 years of age. In our community it was identified that there is a higher-than-expected rate of postpartum depression and alcohol dependence, with the most affected age range in both cases being between 18 and 30 years.