Brief report: Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in pregnant teenagers

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of ICD-10 psychiatric disorders in a population of pregnant teenage women from a Brazilian public hospital. Method: 1000 pregnant teenage women were evaluated using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, a Structured interview which establishes diagnoses according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results: 325 of the 1000 patients were found to have at least one psychiatric disorder; 33.2% of them had a second psychiatric diagnosis. The most prevalent, disorders were depression (12.9%), post-traumatic stress disorder (10%), and tobacco dependence/harmful use (10.30%). The most prevalent co-morbidity was ICD-10 Affective Disorders versus Neurotic, Stress-related, and Somatoform Disorders. Substance-related disorders are significantly correlated with all of the ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses but Psychotic Disorders. Conclusion: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in this Population is high, and one third of them had co-morbidities, a condition usually associated with a more serious course of illness. This finding has important implications for clinical management and prognosis, and demands preventive public policies. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.