Retrospective analysis of women receiving perinatal psychiatric outpatient care in Türkiye.

The perinatal psychiatry outpatient clinic in Türkiye that provides perinatal period-specific mental health services is the first and only one and it is also one of the few examples in the world. It has been continuing since 2021 in Sakarya Training and Research Hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical data of patients applying to the perinatal psychiatry outpatient clinic. Of the 314 women who applied to the Perinatal Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic between 01.03.2021 and 31.03.2023, 130 were included in the study. In order to confirm the diagnoses of the participants and to evaluate additional psychiatric diseases, a SCID-1 interview adapted to DSM-5 was conducted. A comprehensive sociodemographic data form was applied to obtain information about sociodemographic data and clinical features. The most frequent application period was found to be in the first trimester with 25.4%. It was seen that 30.8% of the participants had a chronic medical disease, and 26.2% had a history of psychological trauma. It was seen that the most common diagnosis during pregnancy was depression with 34.1%, the most common diagnosis after birth was depression with 53.6%, and 24.6% had suicidal thoughts. 40.7% of the pregnancies were unplanned and the unwanted pregnancy rate was 33.1%. Complications were observed in 19.5% of the patients during pregnancy. The findings of this study underline the importance of outpatient clinic specialized in the perinatal period, as well as the need for multidisciplinary work and encouragement of planned pregnancies.