Study : Women need more mental health treatment after abortion

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., August 15, 2002 (LSN.ca)

A study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry reveals that abortion is associated with psychiatric episodes suffered by women.

By examining Medi-Cal records for 173,000 low-income California women, researchers Priscilla K. Coleman, David C. Reardon, Vincent M. Rue and Jesse Cougle, compared the rate of psychiatric outpatient treatments for women who had abortions versus those who carried to term. To control for differences in prior psychological health, they excluded all women who had any psychiatric care for a year prior to their pregnancy outcome.

The study found that women were 63 percent more likely to receive mental health care within 90 days of an abortion compared to delivery. In addition, significantly higher rates of subsequent mental health treatment persisted over the entire four years of data examined.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, the study's lead author, said that the study design was an improvement over previous studies because it relied on medical records rather than on surveys of women contacted at an abortion clinic. "Most studies of mental health status after an abortion rely on small groups of women-usually less than 300-and face high drop out rates of 50 percent or more," said Coleman, a
professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "By looking at medical claims for a large group of women, we were able to capture a more accurate picture of the differences between abortion and childbirth."

(American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2002, Vol. 72, No. 1, 141-152)
See the abstract from the journal on line