New Moms Prone to OCD?

Recently I was browsing some news articles revolving around Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I was curious about the latest information regarding this illness. Some how I was not surprised that I found so many articles discussing the increased chances new mothers have in developing this disorder. I say that I am not surprised due to the nature of OCD and how it can sometimes be associated with worrying and the desire to maintain a tight grasp on things.

I decided to read further into these articles so I will provide you a brief summary.

OCD takes the baby blues to a whole new level by Bryony Gordon

http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_ocd-takes-the-baby-blues-to-a-whole-new-level_1808566

This article is written by a woman previously diagnosed with OCD, she was taking antidepressants however stopped when she was pregnant. Shortly after having her baby her OCD symptoms skyrocketed and she began having very severe compulsions. She had to wash her hands regularly, call her husband often to ensure he was ok and at one point convinced herself of having HIV. Finally she went to a doctor and began taking a low dose of antidepressants, which improved her condition dramatically (Gordon, 2013).

New moms prone to OCD by Jenn Savedge

http://www.mnn.com/family/babies-pregnancy/blogs/new-moms-prone-to-ocd

This article led me to a more scientific answer stating that 11 percent of new moms experience OCD symptoms compared to 2-3 percent of the average population. The good news being that these symptoms tended to fade quite rapidly after about 6 months (Savedge, 2013).

After reading these news articles I decided to do the research to back it up and found a study performed by Forray and colleagues from Yale University School of Medicine. There study involved 126 women who had been diagnosed with OCD and the comparison between the group that had been pregnant previously and those that had not. The results of the study provided evidence that pregnancy did in fact affect the onset or worsening of OCD symptoms in women that had previously been diagnosed with OCD (Forray et al. 2010).  

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 Forray, A., Focseneanu, M., Pittman, B., McDougle, C. J., & Epperson, C. N. (2010).

Onset and exacerbation of obsessive-compulsive disorder in pregnancy and the postpartum period. J Clin Psychiatry, 71(8), 1061-1068.

Gordon, B. (2013, March 7). OCD takes the baby blues to a whole new level. DNA,

Health, http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_ocd-takes-the-baby-blues-to-a-whole-new-level_1808566 (2013, March 7).

Savedge, J. (2013, March 5). New moms prone to OCD. Mother Nature Network, family,

http://www.mnn.com/family/babies-pregnancy/blogs/new-moms-prone-to-ocd (2013, March 7).