[The psychological (long-term) sequelae of abortion].

This article aims to review the available literature on the short and long-term psychological sequelae of abortion. This subject remains controversial. The most common reactions women experienced after pregnancy loss were grief, depression and anxiety. From the reviewed literature it seems that those reactions are more common following spontaneous abortion than after therapeutic abortion. Risk factors for these reactions include past psychiatric history, social and cultural attitude, poor social support, history of previous therapeutic abortion, the fact that the current abortion is the result of medical or genetic problem, no living children, or being a single woman. Most of the reviewed papers deal with short-term reactions and raise the need for long term research (more than 2 years). Only one such paper was found. It is recommended that all those who treat women that had an abortion should be aware of its psychological consequences and help identify and refer high-risk women for treatment.