生男孩的妈妈易得产后抑郁症

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据发表在《临床护理》杂志2月刊的一项研究报道，生男孩的妇女比生女孩的妇女更易发生严重产后抑郁症（PND ），且生活质量明显下降。

由法国南希大学Claude de Tychey教授率领的研究团队通过对产后4～8周的181名妇女研究发现，有近三分之一的妇女患上PND。所有受试者均来自法国的一个社区，那里的妇女无需承受婴儿性别的文化压力。其中9%的妇女发生严重PND，这些患者中生育男婴的比例约为四分之三。研究小组还发现，产下男婴的妇女即使没有产后抑郁症，也比生女孩者的生活质量下降。

“产后抑郁症很常见，并构成了重大的公共健康问题，特别是患者没有得到正确的诊断和治疗时，”de Tychey教授强调。 “我们进行这项研究的主要目的是研究性别对PND的影响，但结果显示，事实上性别在生活质量下降和严重PND增加中有着非常重要的作用。 ”

研究人员用一份已被证实有效的问卷来评估这些妇女的生活质量，共36个问题，要求她们以百分制分别从八个方面来对自己的身体状况进行评分。这八个方面包括躯体功能、躯体作用、躯体疼痛、心理健康、情绪作用、社会功能、活力和一般状况。然后将得到的问卷结果根据生男生女以及未患PND、轻度或重度PND进行归纳分析，并计算出他们身体和心理健康的总体评分，产生了60个单独的生活质量分数。

研究人员分析整体结果时发现：

-不管是否患有PND，70%生男孩的妇女比生女孩的妇女生活质量下降。

-当把每一个分类的10个生活质量分数加在一起时，未患PND的妇女生活质量分值最高——生女孩者713分，生男孩者648分。

-当对PND妇女进行分析时，发现生女孩者的生活质量分数较高——轻度PND者567分，严重PND者541分。而生男孩的妇女分值较低，轻度PND者539分，严重PND者498分。

这些数字也促使研究者对未患PND、轻度PND和重度PND妇女生育婴儿的性别差异进行了比较。结果表明：

-未患PND的妇女生育婴儿的性别差异最大。如果她们生的是一名男婴，她们的生活质量分数在90％的分类中低于那些生女孩的妇女。

-患有PND的妇女中，生男婴的妇女生活质量分数也较低——轻度PND者在50%的分类中偏低，严重PND者在70%的分类中偏低。

de Tychey教授说，“这些数字清楚地表明，生一个男孩会导致生活质量分数下降 。我们还发现，第一次当妈妈对生活质量分数并没有影响。不论最近的分娩是第一胎还是第二胎，她们的总体分数都相同” 。

受试妇女中生男孩的比例刚刚超过半数（52％）。纳入研究的婴儿有61％是第一胎（55个男孩和56个女孩），其余均为第二胎。生第二胎的妇女多半情况下第一胎是女孩（ 59 ％ ）。这些女性的年龄介于19至40岁，平均29岁 。

de Tychey教授指出，“产后抑郁症对女性有相当大的影响，因为它会影响到她们的身体和精神健康。以前的研究表明，生活在重男轻女文化背景下的妇女如果生了一个女孩，则更易遭受PND的痛苦。 ”

“但是，我们的研究是在一个妇女无需承受婴儿性别压力的法国社区内进行的。该研究首次表明，生男孩的妇女更容易遭受严重PND，且生活质量下降。至于造成这种现象的原因，目前尚不清楚，还需要进一步研究探索。我们认为，我们的研究结果具有重要的公共卫生意义，有必要为生男孩的妇女制定预防和早期心理治疗方案”。
Giving Birth To A Boy Is More Likely To Reduce Quality Of Life And Increase Severe Post-Natal Depression

Article Date: 14 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PST

Giving birth to a boy can lead to higher levels of severe post-natal depression (PND) and reduced quality of life than having a girl, according to research published in the February issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing.

A team of researchers led by Professor Claude de Tychey, from Universite Nancy 2, France, found that just under a third of the 181 women they studied four to eight weeks after delivery had PND.

Nine per cent of the women in the study - carried out in a French community where they didn't face cultural pressures over the sex of their baby - had severe PND and just over three-quarters of those had given birth to boys.

The team also discovered that, even if women didn't have postnatal depression, giving birth to a boy was significantly more likely to reduce their quality of life than delivering a girl.

\"ost-natal depression is very common and poses a major public health problem, especially if it is not diagnosed and treated\" stresses Professor de Tychey.

\"When we launched our research, our main aim was to study the effect that gender has on PND. But the overwhelming finding of the study was the fact that gender appears to play a significant role in reduced quality of life as well as an increased chance of severe PND.\"

The researchers measured the women's quality of life using a validated questionnaire containing 36 questions. This asked the women to score eight dimensions of their health - physical functioning, physical role, bodily pain, mental health, emotional role, social functioning, vitality and general health - using a 100- point scale.

The results were then collated into male and female births and whether the woman had no, mild or severe PND. Scores were also calculated for their overall physical and mental health. This provided 60 separate quality of life scores.

When the researchers looked at overall results they discovered that:

- Women who had given birth to a boy reported lower quality of life scores in 70 per cent of cases compared with women who had delivered a girl, regardless of whether they suffered from PND.

- When the 10 quality of life scores were added together in each category, women who had no PND had the highest quality of life scores - 713 points for women who had given birth to girls and 648 for women who had delivered boys.

- When the researchers looked at women with PND, they found higher quality of life scores for women who had delivered girls - 567 if the PND was mild and 541 if it was severe. Women who had delivered boys scored lower totals of 539 if the PND was mild and 498 if it was severe.

The figures also enabled the researchers to compare the gender differences for women with no, mild and severe PND. This showed that:

- Gender differences were greatest in women who had no PND. If they had given birth to a boy they had lower quality of life scores in 90 per cent of categories than those who had delivered girls.

- Women with PND also reported lower quality of life scores if they had had a boy - these were lower in 50 per cent of categories if the PND was mild and in 70 per cent of categories if the PND was severe.

\"These figures show very clearly that having a boy resulted in lower quality of life scores in all cases\" says Professor de Tychey.

\"We also discovered that being a first-time mother had no effect on quality of life scores. Women had the same general scores regardless of whether the recent birth was their first or second baby.\"

Just over half of the women who took part (52 per cent) had given birth to boys. 61 per cent of the babies included in the study were first babies (55 boys and 56 girls) and the remainder were second babies.

Women having their second baby were slightly more likely to have had a girl the first time around (59 per cent). The women's ages ranged from 19 to 40 and averaged 29.

\"ost-natal depression can have a considerable impact on women as it can affect both their physical and mental health\" stresses Professor de Tychey.

\"revious studies have shown that women who live in cultures where greater value is placed on sons are more likely to suffer from PND if they give birth to a girl.

\"However, we believe that this study - carried out in a French community where women didn't face cultural pressures over the sex of their baby - is the first to show that women who give birth to boys are more likely to suffer from severe PND and reduced quality of life. Further research is needed to find out why this happens. \"We believe that our findings have important public health consequences, as they point to the need for developing prevention and early psychotherapeutic programmes for women giving birth to boys.\"