Level of awareness and treatment of anxiety and depression during pregnancy in southeast Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depressive disorders are somewhat masked by features of pregnancy; hence many women are ignorant of them and are untreated. AIM: To determine the level of awareness and treatment of anxiety and depression in pregnancy. SETTING: The study was carried out at the antenatal clinic of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study of 200 pregnant women in consecutive attendance of the antenatal clinic using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the participants, 23.5% had anxiety and/or depression, 7.5% of them were aware of their condition and only 0.5% of all the participants or 6.7% of those who were aware of their problem received treatment. CONCLUSION: Anxiety and depression are prevalent among pregnant women. Because of overlap of symptoms of anxiety and depression with those of pregnancy, the awareness is very low; hence many of them suffer immensely without treatment.