Therapeutic Termination of Pregnancy and Psychiatric Implications

The therapeutic interruption of pregnancy (TTOP) may have psychiatric outcomes like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Personality issues, childhood traumas and paternal consequences are too little investigated in current Literature. The investigator's aim is exploring the contribution of maternal personality disorders and maternal history of childhood traumas to psychiatric outcomes after a TToP, paternal psychiatric outcomes and their role on their partner's psychopathological and psychiatric outcomes. 25 couples, with a prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormality, had psychiatric evaluation for eligibility before TToP and after one year from the procedure. Women and unborn's fathers were also subjected to different psychometric questionnaires (HAM-D, HAM-A, BDI-II, PCL-5, IPDS, CTQ, CD-RISC-10). At the time of first contact (T0) only women were subjected to a psychiatric clinical examination in order to evaluate their legal eligibility to TToP, according to Italian Law n. 194/78. At T0 women were also subjected to Hamilton's rating scale for depression (HRSD or HAM-D), Hamilton's rating scale for anxiety (HRSA or HAM-A), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). At the follow up after 1 year from the first examination (T1) the parental couples were subjected to a questionnaire with multiple psychometric tests for mother and her partner. The female version included Post-traumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL-5), Iowa Personality Disorder Screen (IPDS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) and Short-Form Questionnaire on childhood trauma (CTQ-SF). The male version included Post-traumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL-5), Iowa Personality Disorder Screen (IPDS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) and Short-Form Questionnaire on childhood trauma (CTQ-SF).