PND, When A Mother Is Depressed - Cohospitalise with children or without?

There is disagreement whether in-patient psychotherapeutic treatment results for women whose children are cohospitalised with them would be better if the mothers were hospitalised without children. The purpose of this study was to examine this question in the case of mothers with depressive symptoms.


The treatment results for 43 female in-patients (21 with and 22 without accompanying children) in a prospective, randomised, controlled study were compared. The period of observation was 6 weeks.


The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Changes in Experience and Behaviour Questionnaire (VEV) were used for outcome measures. At 6 weeks, according to the intent-to-treat principle, neither the VEV (p = 0.58) nor the BDI (p = 0.57) yielded significant differences between mothers whose children were admitted jointly and mothers whose children were not.


The treatment results for patients with depressive symptoms who are accompanied by their children for the duration of their in-patient psychotherapy treatment are just as good as those for mothers whose children are not jointly admitted. Additionally, the data have further implications that lend themselves to discussion regarding support for this type of facility.


About the JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOSOMATICS


The International Federation for Psychotherapy (IFP) is an organization of national, regional, and school-oriented psychotherapy societies. Its goals are to facilitate and promote international communication among the various schools, professional groups and cultures within psychotherapy. The IFP organizes international congresses and conferences on psychotherapy. The IFP promotes the development of psychotherapy in practice, teaching and research and encourages and supports appropriate standards in the practice of psychotherapy. "Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics" is the official journal of the IFP. IFP, Culmannstrasse 8, CH-8091 Zurich


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