Lluïsa Garcia-Esteve

• Hospital Clínic de Barcelona

The aim of the present study was to validate the Spanish Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) against external criteria of bonding disorder, as well as to establish its test-retest reliability. One hundred fifty-six postpartum women consecutively recruited from a perinatal mental health outpatient unit completed the PBQ at 4-6 weeks postpartum. F...

Purpose: Women who take lithium during pregnancy and continue after delivery may choose to breastfeed, formula feed, or mix these options. The aim of the study was to evaluate the neonatal lithium serum concentrations based on these three feeding trajectories. Methods: We followed 24 women with bipolar disorder treated with lithium monotherapy duri...

Suicidability has been associated with neuroticism and psychoticism, but its role during perinatal period has not been analyzed. We explore the association between personality dimensions, depressive symptoms, and other psychosocial variables in postpartum suicidal ideation. A cohort of 1795 healthy Spanish women from the general population was asse...

Background: Women with Bipolar Disorder (BD) during pregnancy present a negative impact on them and their babies' health. Caesarean Section (C-Section) is an intervention to reduce complications associated with childbirth, but it also has risks, including maternal infections, anaesthetic and psychological complications. There are few studies that...

Variables such as the mother's personality, social support, coping strategies and stressful events have been described as risk factors for postpartum depression. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis was used to examine whether neuroticism, perceived social support, perceived life events, and coping strategies are associated with postpartum...

Objective To examine whether a first-trimester strategy of secondary prevention for preeclampsia increases anxiety in pregnant women.Methods The anxiety levels of a cohort of women screened for preeclampsia at first trimester were measured by the Spielberg State Anxiety Inventory [STAI-S] and compared between women screened as low and high risk. In...

Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate the clinical trajectories in women suffering from episode of postpartum depression, and to identify recurrence risk factors. Methods: Prospective longitudinal study with an 8-year follow-up in postpartum depressed women. Demographic and clinical data were collected by using a Psychosocial Ris...

The objective of this paper is to examine the association between maternal lifetime abuse and perinatal depressive symptoms. Papers included in this review were identified through electronic searches of the following databases: Pubmed Medline and Ovid, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library. Each database was searched from its start date throug...

This study aims to examine the prevalence and characteristics of physical, emotional and sexual childhood abuse. It also examines whether other non-abuse types of childhood adversities related to maladaptive family functioning and separations during childhood can be used as markers for the presence of childhood abuse. Participants (N = 237) were wo...

This study aims to examine the prevalence and characteristics of physical, emotional and sexual childhood abuse. It also examines whether other non-abuse types of childhood adversities related to maladaptive family functioning and separations during childhood can be used as markers for the presence of childhood abuse. Participants (N = 237) were wo...

Introduction: Lithium has been used in the treatment of pregnant women with bipolar disorder for many decades but information on the effects of its exposure on perinatal variables is scarce. Objectives: To determine the effects of in-utero exposure to lithium on neonatal outcomes among infants born to women with treatment with lithium during pregn...

Introduction: Lithium has been used in the treatment of bipolar disorder in pregnant women. However, information on the pharmacokinetics of lithium during perinatal period is scarce. Objectives: To study pharmacokinetics of lithium during delivery and in the neonatal period. Methods: A prospective, observational and naturalistic study was conduct...

Introduction: Insulin-dependent diabetes, obesity and gestational diabetes are factors associated with macrosomia. Some psychiatric medications have well established side effects of weight changes in exposed pregnants. However, very few studies have investigated about the effects of lithium in fetal and neonatal anthropometry. Aims: To investigate...

Introduction: Despite the increasing proposals of different mood stabilizers as prophylactic treatment of bipolar disorder, lithium remains the gold standard by many clinicians for use during pregnancy, given its safety profile, compared to other mood stabilizers (valproate, carbamazepine, lamotrigine and second-generation antipsychotics) [1]. A nu...

Objective: To identify the factors associated with discontinuation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in pregnant women and to determine the rates of SSRI reintroduction during pregnancy. Method: A prospective study was conducted in the Perinatal Psychiatry Service of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. The total sample comprised 1...

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and personality disorder symptoms controlling for depressive state. Victims of IPV (n = 176) and non-abused women (n = 193) completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ), Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and Beck D...

Substance use in pregnancy is an increasingly common problem and has become an important public health issue. Postpartum depression has a high prevalence (10%) of women in Spanish population.Objetive/aimTo study the impact of perinatal tobacco use in postpartum depression.MethodsA cohort study of 1804 puerperal Spanish Caucasian women of general po...

To our knowledge, only one study has assessed the risk of relapse of affective disorders after discontinuation of antidepressants in pregnancy (Cohen et al, 2006). The factors associated with antidepressant discontinuation are unknown.Objective To describe the factors associated to discontinuation of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) i...

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) in utero on child IQ and psychopathological syndromes.MethodsA two cohorts study was designed. A cohort of 40 mother-child pairs with depressive or anxiety disorders (DSM-IV criteria) attended at a Perinatal Psychiatry Program between 2004 an...

In this study, the authors tested alternative factor models of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a sample of Spanish postpartum women, using confirmatory factor analysis. The authors report the results of modeling three different methods for scoring the GHQ-12 using estimation methods recommended for categorical and binary data....

Childhood abuse is a powerful risk factor for developing postpartum depression in adulthood, and recently it has been associated to thyroid dysfunction in postpartum depressive women. The purpose of this study was to investigated the effects of childhood abuse on thyroid status and depressive symptomatology in two hundred and thirty-six (n=236) pos...

Although the relationship between personality and depressive illness is complex (Shea, 2005), there is empirical evidence that some personality features such as neuroticism, harm avoidance, introversion, dependency, self-criticism or perfectionism are related to depressive illness risk (Gunderson et al. 1999). Moreover, personality traits, especial...

To carry out a systematic review of the association between maternal and school-age children depression and covariate factors. The key words maternal depression, depressed children, and school-age key words were searched in Medline, Lilacs, Scielo, IndexPsi, and PsycInfo (2004-2010). Clinical and community cross-sectional and longitudinal studies w...

Objective : To determine the effect of in-utero exposure to lithium on fetal biometry and neonatal outcomes. Methods : Prospective observational study including 18 pregnant women on maintenance treatment with lithium alone (n=13) or polytherapy (n=5) during late pregnancy, which were treated at the Perinatal Psychiatry Program CLINIC between 2007...

Introduction Although perfectionism has generally been associated with depressive illness in general, there are no studies on its role in major depression in the postnatal period. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between perfectionism and major postpartum depression. Methods In this case-control study, we compared the d...

Background and objectivesTo validate four instruments to detect domestic violence in health-care settings against external criteria -Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory short form (PMWI-SF), Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), Partner Violence Screen (PVS)- and to assess the concordance and compare the diagnost...

Although perfectionism from a multidimensional perspective has generally been associated with depressive illness, there are not many studies on its role in major depression in the postnatal period. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between perfectionism dimensions using the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on obstetrical and neonatal outcomes. A case-control study was conducted to compare perinatal outcomes among pregnant women with affective disorder (DSM-IV criteria) and who received SSRIs during pregnancy with those of wome...

To validate four instruments to detect domestic violence in health-care settings against external criteria -Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory short form (PMWI-SF), Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), Partner Violence Screen (PVS)- and to assess the concordance and compare the diagnostic accuracy. This was a c...

The aims were to study the validity and test-retest reliability of the Early Trauma Inventory-Self Report (ETI-SR) and its short-form (ETI-SF), which retrospectively assess different childhood trauma, in a sample of Spanish postpartum women. A total of 227 healthy postpartum women completed the ETI-SR and ETI-SF. The longitudinal, expert, all data...

This instrumental study was designed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS). The total sample was made up of 582 female college students, with a mean age of 21.68 (SD= 4.45). The results of confirmatory factor analysis identified the six-factor solution proposed by the...

Objective To study whether there are personality characteristics that discriminate between IPV women and non-abused control women, taking into account the effect of emotional state (depressive symptoms). Method A total of 176 women victim of IPV and 193 non-abused control women were assessed with the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology...

Introduction Despite lithium has been used for the last 50 years as a maintenance treatment for bipolar disorder during pregnancy, there is limited information about perinatal clinical outcomes from fetal exposure to lithium. Objectives 1. To quantify the rate of lithium placental passage 2. To assess any association between plasma concentration o...

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional problem experienced by childbearing women, and postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common psychiatric disorder seen during the first year after delivery. The possible link between iron deficiency and PPD is not clear. To evaluate whether iron status 48 h after delivery was associated with PPD. Our...

The Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (VPSQ) is a nine-item self-report scale developed to asses personality traits which increase the risk of postpartum depression. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the VPSQ in a sample of postpartum women. A cohort of 309 postpartum women wa...

The aims of the study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and to validate it against external criteria of intimate partner violence. The Spanish version of the ISA was administered to 223 non-abused women and 182 victims of intimate partner violence. Internal consistency coefficients...

Introduction Pregnancy and postpartum both imply high risk for developing psychiatric disorders in women. Aims To study the relationship between life events (LE) and social support degree (SS) during pregnancy and depressive symptoms in early postpartum period. Method A cross-sectional study of 309 consecutive Spanish women, evaluated the second...

Introduction Although it is well know that the substance use during pregnancy has a negative impact on mother and child health, there are few data on pregnancy - related substance use as a risk factor for postpartum depression and child outcomes. Aims: To determine maternal and child outcomes at 8 and 32 weeks postpartum of women who reported subst...

Physiological changes during gestation and after delivery are associated with postpartum thyroid dysfunction, which is due to thyroid autoimmunity in some cases. Postpartum thyroid dysfunction, in turn, has been associated with postpartum depression (PPD). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether thyroid function immediately after deliv...

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between early life events in women with postpartum major depression and concomitant hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis disturbances (HPTD), thyroid dysfunction or presence of thyroid antibodies. Serum total tri-iodothyronine (TT3), free thyroxin (FT4), Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), Thyr...

Polymorphic variations in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) moderate the depressogenic effects of tryptophan depletion. After childbirth there is a sharp reduction in brain tryptophan availability, thus polymorphic variations in 5-HTT may play a similar role in the post-partum period. To study the role of 5-HTT polymorphic variations in mood c...

Postnatal psychiatric morbidity is a frequent and serious complication of childbirth. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence and co-occurrence of DSM-IV psychiatric disorders in a community sample of postpartum Spanish mothers. A two-phase cross-sectional study was conducted in which all consecutive women attending the routine...

a woman to become depressed is after childbirth. 1 Post-partum depression affects approximately 13% of women. 2,3 Post-partum depression has a great impact on the family and economy, and is considered a major public health problem. 4,5 There is general agreement that the dramatic physio-logical changes that occur post-partum increase a woman's vuln...

The goal of this study was to identify sociodemographic, psychopathological, and obstetric risk factors associated with postnatal depression (PND) and their relative weight. A cross-sectional two-stage design was used. All consecutive women receiving a routine check-up 6 weeks postpartum at Obstetric Services during a 1-year period were included. I...

A pesar que el embarazo se ha considerado siempre un período de relativo bienestar psíquico, se sabe que no tiene un factor protector sobre la salud psíquica y que es un acontecimiento potencialmente estresante que puede suponer un riesgo para mujeres vulnerables. La gestación es un momento de vulne-rabilidad en la mujer para el inicio o recaída de...

To assess the validity of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in screening for the most common postnatal psychiatric morbidities (mood, anxiety and adjustment disorders). A two-phase cross-sectional study was designed. First, a sample of 1453 women visiting at 6 weeks postpartum comp...

Objective: Our objectives were: 1) to study the relationship between unplanned maternity and postpartum psychiatric morbidity. 2) to identify psychological factors associated with unplanned maternity. Methods: Data from a previous study for a validation of the EPDS, which was carried out on puerperal women in their postpartum period, were used. Tot...

The EPDS is a 10-items self-report scale designed as a specific instrument to detect postnatal depression. It was validated in the UK and in other countries, but not in Spain. We report data from all women (n=1201) attending in a routine postnatal check-up at 6 weeks postpartum during 1 year. A two-stage method was used: for the first stage, all in...

Our objectives were: To estimate the prevalence of postpartum depression (PD) by two evaluation methods: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), and self-report Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and to identify the EPDS cut-off to provide an unbiased estimation of PD prevalence. We report data from all women (n = 1191) attending...

Background and objective Our objectives were: To estimate the prevalence of postpartum depression(PD) by two evaluation methods: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), andself-report Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and to identify the EPDS cut-off toprovide an unbiased estimation of PD prevalence. Patients and method We repo...

A sample of 97 males suffering from myocardial infarction was studied in order to determine the influence of psychological variables and emotional states on psychopathology displayed by patients in the course of their cardiological recovery. Discriminant analysis revealed that depression in the coronary unit and nonuse of problem-solving strategies...

From a selected sample of 97 males suffering from a first myocardial infarction, 67 patients were studied to ascertain the influence of denial mechanisms (DM) on their cardiological and psychological outcome. There were no differences among high deniers and low deniers with respect to the cardiological outcome, but high deniers showed less anxiety...

A sample of 31 patients of both sexes suffering from psychogenic pain disorder (DSM-III) were studied in order to test if their clinical and biological features as well as their response to antidepressant treatment support the hypothesis that relates this syndrome to depressive disorders. Biological variables were basal cortisol and dexamethasone s...

A sample of 41 women suffering from psychogenic pain according to DSM-III diagnostic criteria were psychometrically studied, in order to ascertain if they showed specific psychological traits or mechanisms. Type A behavior, extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and dissimulation and hostility-aggressivity traits were the psychological variables s...