Psychiatric morbidity following miscarriage: a prevalence study of Chinese women in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVE

Previous studies reported that 48-51% of women in Western countries developed depressive disorder following a miscarriage. There is, however, little data among non-Western populations. The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity following miscarriage among Chinese women in Hong Kong.

METHODS

Subjects were interviewed immediately after a miscarriage to collect medical, psychiatric, and sociodemographic data. Six weeks following the miscarriage, 150 subjects were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) to establish psychiatric diagnoses.

RESULTS

18 subjects (12%) met the DSM-III-R criteria for major depression and 2 subjects (1.3%) were diagnosed anxiety disorder NOS six weeks after the miscarriage.

CONCLUSIONS

Chinese women in Hong Kong have a lower rate of psychiatric morbidity after a miscarriage.