PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY FOLLOWING HYSTERECTOMY

Polash Roy*, Muhammad Sayed Inam, Gopal Sankar Dey and Rezaul Karim

ABSTRACT

Background: Hysterectomy is one of the most commonly performed gynecological surgical procedure throughout the world. The surgical operations on the uterus are thought to be an insult to the women’s emotional equilibrium. So that its loss leads to be a feeling of reduced feminity which in turn leads to psychiatric disorder. The prevalence of psychiatric disorder after hysterectomy was estimated vary widely ranging up to 70%. Majority of the women after hysterectomy can be depressed and can also show symptoms of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder. So, screening of psychiatric disorder in every hysterectomized woman is necessary. Objective: To evaluate psychiatric morbidity among the hysterectomized women. Material and Methods: This was a cross sectional comparative study, conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Sylhet, Bangladesh during the period from January 2012 to December 2012. Inclusion criteria were married women after 3 to 6 months following planned hysterectomy with reproductive age. Women having past history of psychiatric illness or substance abuse, history of any malignancy leading to hysterectomy or history of any chronic medical illness or any other major surgical treatment were excluded. 365 women following hysterectomy were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and categorized as hysterectomized group. Another 366 age matched nonhysterectomized women were selected as control group. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 41.48 (SD±3.79) years which was almost identical to control group (p=0.953). Most of the women (49.5%) were below the age of 40 years. Psychiatric co-morbidity was most frequent in hysterectomized group (38.3%) as compared to control group (28.1%) (p<0.001). The most common psychiatric disorder was Major Depressive Disorder (26.5%) followed be Panic Disorder (5.2%), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (3.8%) and Conversion Disorder (2.7%). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that a significant number of women suffer from psychiatric disorder after hysterectomy than the age matched control.

Keywords: Hysterectomy, Psychiatric disorder, Depressive disorder.