Birth outcomes in a Swedish population of women reporting a history of violence including domestic violence during pregnancy: a longitudinal cohort study.

BACKGROUND:Victimisation of women is encountered in all countries across the world, it damages the mental and physical health of women. During pregnancy and the postpartum period, women are at a greater risk of experiencing violence from an intimate partner. The aim of this study was to explore childbirth outcomes in a Swedish population of women reporting a history of violence including domestic violence during pregnancy. METHODS:A longitudinal cohort design was used. In total, 1939 pregnant women ≥18 years were recruited to answer two questionnaires, both questionnaires were administered in the early and late stages of their pregnancy. The available dataset included birth records of 1694 mothers who gave birth between June 2012 and April 2014. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, T-test and bivariate logistic regression. RESULTS:Of 1694 mothers 38.7% (n = 656) reported a history of violence and 2% (n = 34) also experienced domestic violence during pregnancy. Women who were single, living apart from their partner, unemployed, smoked and faced financial distress were at a higher risk of experiencing violence (p = 0.001). They also had significant low scores on the SOC-scale and high EDS-scores ≥13 (p = 0.001) when compared to women without a history of violence (p = 0.001). Having a history of violence increased the woman's risk of undergoing a caesarean section (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.02-1.70). A history of emotional abuse also significantly increased the risk of having a caesarean section irrespective of whether it was a planned or an emergency caesarean section (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.09-2.06). Infants born to a mother who reported a history of violence, were at significant risk of being born premature < 37 weeks of gestation compared to infants born by mothers with no history of violence (p = 0,049). CONCLUSIONS:A history of violence and/or exclusively a history of emotional abuse has a negative impact on childbirth outcomes including caesarean section and premature birth. Therefore, early identification of a history of or ongoing violence is crucial to provide women with extra support which may have positive impact on her birth outcomes

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

© The Author(s) 2018In everyday life, involuntary thoughts about future plans and events occur as often as involuntary thoughts about the past. However, compared to involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), such episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) have become a focus of study only recently. The aim of the present investigation was to examine why we are not constantly flooded by IFTs and IAMs given that they are often triggered by incidental cues while performing undemanding activities. One possibility is that activated thoughts are suppressed by the inhibitory control mechanism, and therefore depleting inhibitory control should enhance the frequency of both IFTs and IAMs. We report an experiment with a between-subjects design, in which participants in the depleted inhibition condition performed a 60-min high-conflict Stroop task before completing a laboratory vigilance task measuring the frequency of IFTs and IAMs. Participants in the intact inhibition condition performed a version of the Stroop task that did not deplete inhibitory control. To control for physical and mental fatigue resulting from performing the 60-min Stroop tasks in experimental conditions, participants in the control condition completed only the vigilance task. Contrary to predictions, the number of IFTs and IAMs reported during the vigilance task, using the probe-caught method, did not differ across conditions. However, manipulation checks showed that participants’ inhibitory resources were reduced in the depleted inhibition condition, and participants were more tired in the experimental than in the control conditions. These initial findings suggest that neither inhibitory control nor physical and mental fatigue affect the frequency of IFTs and IAMs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: A dual process account

© 2019 Springer Nature.This is the final published version of an article published in Psychological Research, licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-bution 4.0 International License. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7.In this article, we address an apparent paradox in the literature on mental time travel and mind-wandering: How is it possible that future thinking is both constructive, yet often experienced as occurring spontaneously? We identify and describe two ‘routes’ whereby episodic future thoughts are brought to consciousness, with each of the ‘routes’ being associated with separable cognitive processes and functions. Voluntary future thinking relies on controlled, deliberate and slow cognitive processing. The other, termed involuntary or spontaneous future thinking, relies on automatic processes that allows ‘fully-fledged’ episodic future thoughts to freely come to mind, often triggered by internal or external cues. To unravel the paradox, we propose that the majority of spontaneous future thoughts are ‘pre-made’ (i.e., each spontaneous future thought is a re-iteration of a previously constructed future event), and therefore based on simple, well-understood, memory processes. We also propose that the pre-made hypothesis explains why spontaneous future thoughts occur rapidly, are similar to involuntary memories, and predominantly about upcoming tasks and goals. We also raise the possibility that spontaneous future thinking is the default mode of imagining the future. This dual process approach complements and extends standard theoretical approaches that emphasise constructive simulation, and outlines novel opportunities for researchers examining voluntary and spontaneous forms of future thinking.Peer reviewe

Depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum in women and use of antidepressant treatment &ndash; a longitudinal cohort study

Charlotta Sunnqvist, Karin Sj&ouml;str&ouml;m, Hafr&uacute;n Finnbogad&oacute;ttir Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Care Science, Malm&ouml; University, Malm&ouml;, Sweden Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether women, who reported &ldquo;symptoms of depression&rdquo; during pregnancy and up to 1.5 years postpartum, who reported domestic violence or not, were treated with antidepressant medication. Patients and methods: A prospective longitudinal cohort study recruited primi- and multiparous women (n=1,939). The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire, and a questionnaire about medication during pregnancy were distributed and administered three times, during early pregnancy, late pregnancy, and the postpartum period. Antidepressant medication was compared between women with EPDS scores Results: EPDS scores &ge;13 were detected in 10.1% of the women during the whole pregnancy, of those 6.2% had depressive symptoms already in early pregnancy and 10.0 % during the postpartum period. Women with EPDS scores &ge;13 and non-exposure to domestic violence were more often non-medicated (P&lt;0.001). None of the women with EPDS scores &ge;13 exposed to domestic violence had received any antidepressant medication, albeit the relationship was statistically nonsignificant. Conclusion: Pregnant women who experienced themselves as having several depressive symptoms, social vulnerability, and even a history of domestic violence, did not receive any antidepressant treatment during pregnancy nor postpartum. This study shows the importance of detecting depressive symptoms during early pregnancy and a need for standardized screening methods. Keywords: antidepressant treatment, depression, domestic violence, postpartum, pregnancy, untreated, reproductive ag

Symptoms of sexual dysfunction among men from infertile couples : prevalence and association with testosterone deficiency

Background: This case control study aimed to investigate whether symptoms of sexual dysfunction are more common in males from infertile couples than in the general population and to explore whether symptoms of sexual dysfunction are associated to hypogonadism. Objectives: Participants were 165 subfertile men in infertile heterosexual relationships, 18–50 years of age, with sperm concentrations < 15 × 106/mL. The controls were 199 men from a population-based group, matched for age. Material and methods: Logistic regression was applied in order to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for seven different symptoms of sexual dysfunction. In a multivariate model, we tested independent effects of infertility and primary as well as secondary hypogonadism. Results: Statistically significant association between subfertility and symptoms of sexual dysfunction was found for lack of ability to control ejaculation (OR 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2–4.2). For hypogonadism, statistical significance was seen both in relation to low sexual interest/desire for sex (OR 2.3, 95% CI: 1.0–5.5) and for being worried about the size or shape of the penis (OR 3.6, 95% CI: 1.3–9.5). These associations remained statistically significant in males with primary but not those with secondary hypogonadism. Discussion: Our study showed that men from infertile couples have an increased risk of symptoms of sexual dysfunction and this risk is linked to androgen deficiency. Conclusion: Assessment of reproductive hormone levels and sexual function should routinely be done in this group of males