[Psychiatric morbidity and alcohol use by pregnant women in a public obstetric service].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between alcohol consumption and emotional distress in pregnant women, and to verify whether women with problematic alcohol consumption (abuse or dependence) have more emotional distress than those with non-problematic alcohol consumption.
METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out in a clinical sample from a public obstetric service in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. A non-probabilistic convenience sample of patients who were consecutively recruited comprised 450 pregnant women. Three questionnaires were applied: a sociodemographic profile, followed by the Psychiatric Morbidity Questionnaire (QMPA) and a standardized questionnaire for collecting data on alcohol-related problems (abuse or dependence) according to ICD-10 criteria. Univariate analysis (ANOVA) was used for comparison between groups using central distribution measures and 95% confidence intervals.
RESULTS: There were found 172 (38.2%) problematic pregnant women with positive score (score >7) in the QMPA. A group of 41 (9.1%) pregnant women with problematic alcohol consumption was detected according to ICD-10 criteria, 27 (6.0%) of them diagnosed as alcohol abuse and 14 (3.1%) as alcohol dependence. Alcohol abuse or dependence syndrome was related to greater emotional distress, i.e. higher mean scoring in anxiety, depression and alcohol QMPA subscales.
CONCLUSIONS: Given the prevalence of emotional distress and alcohol consumption during pregnancy and high risk of mother-child health problems, careful evaluations in this population should be conducted by health professionals.