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A comparison of depression and anxiety symptom trajectories between women who had an abortion and women denied one D. G. Foster, J. R. Steinberg, S. C. M. Roberts, J. Neuhaus, M. A. Biggs July 2015

A comparison of depression and anxiety symptom trajectories between women who had an abortion and women denied one
D. G. Foster, J. R. Steinberg, S. C. M. Roberts, J. Neuhaus, M. A. Biggs
Journal : Psychological Medicine / Volume 45 / Issue 10 / July 2015
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714003213
Published online : 28 January 2015, pp. 2073-2082
Source : NCBI

Background

This study prospectively assesses the mental health outcomes among women seeking abortions, by comparing women having later abortions to women denied abortions, up to two years post-abortion seeking.

Methods

We present the first two years of a 5-year telephone interview study that is following 956 women who sought an abortion from 30 facilities throughout the U.S. We use adjusted linear mixed effects regression analyses to assess whether symptoms of depression and anxiety, as measured by the BSI-short form and Prime-MD, differ over time among women denied an abortion due to advanced gestational age, compared to women who received abortions.

Results

Baseline predicted mean depressive symptom scores for women denied abortion (3.07) were similar to women receiving an abortion just below the gestational limit (2.86). Depressive symptoms declined over time with no difference between groups. Initial predicted mean anxiety symptoms were higher among women denied care (2.59) than among women who had an abortion just below the gestational limit (1.91). Anxiety levels in the two groups declined and converged after one year.

Conclusions

Women who received an abortion had similar or lower levels of depression and anxiety than women denied an abortion. Our findings do not support the notion that abortion is a cause of mental health problems