PE Risk in Relation to Maternal Mood & Anxiety

[saving_grace]

This is so interesting to me! I experienced some major anxiety for the first time in my life while pregnant with DD. It was all surrounding the new house DH and I bought. I was so freaking out about the house that I couldn't even talk about it without getting nauseous and panicky. It was the weirdest thing! Poor DH was so excited about the house and I would get angry at him for even bringing it up because of the way it made me feel. I've started having some anxiety come up again this pregnancy but nothing quite as strong yet. I'm thinking I should see someone about my thyroid since both my mom and sister are both hypothyroid.

[sheri-ct]

I was a nervous wreck during my entire pre-e pregnancy. It took 4 years to conceive them and I was petrified of something going wrong. I spent the entire pregnancy with a bad feeling. Did the stress cause the pre-e or did something wrong with the pregnancy cause the stress?

This time I am happy to report that I am as relaxed as can be!

Sheri

[momofhannah]

In response to Case Study on Xanax?

[jend01]

I haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but just wanted to say that I was diagnosed with ptsd and have had a few panic attacks after my pregnancy. I was always a little nervous before being pregnant, but nothing major.

So does this mean that because I do have an anxiety issue that my chances will be even higher??
**sorry if this is in the article, like I said I haven't had a chance to read it yet**

[momofhannah]

Ohh oops.. I did not realize that this was to post my message, not the topic of my message. Anyway, so sorry this took so long to reply to Caryn's message re doing future possible case study on Xanax. I would like to know if there will be any case studies on pregnant women with anxiety. It is really intersting how much anxiety has played a huge role in developing my white coat hypertension and then preclampsia, especially that I have a family history of anxiety and thryoid problems. I have been a pretty anxious person, but the white coat hypertension did not show up until a few years ago so I knew that the anxiety must have somehow manfiested itself into a specific phobia out of the blue. I never have had problems going to drs until a few years ago and then the dread of going to drs just stuck with me after that scare with the nurse who told my blood pressure was a bit too high. I never had problems with my b/p or got nervous during thought about getting pregnant again on and off, but I would never want to get pregnant unless there is some kind of treatment for women with anxiety and/or white coat hypertension during pregnancy. That would make me feel so much safer knowing that I won't develop preclampsia again if I decide to get preg again. I also discovered that I had thryoid problems shortly after having my girl and had blood pressure/anxiety issues during that time. I have had it corrected with meds and am back to normal but I know that I have developed kind of a phobia and would have to do everything possible to treat and control my anxiety issues before I can decide if I want to get pregnant again or not. I would like to know more about possible case studies in future related to pregnancy anxiety. Thanks!

[Buttercup72]

I find this very interesting. I was diagnosed with Panic/Anxiety disorder in college. I had been on zoloft off and on before I had my dd in 2000. I was diagnosed with PE and delivered at 36 weeks. I recently had a miscarriage in Dec at 15 weeks. I have not been on zoloft for a few years b/c my anxiety has not been horrible and I manage when needed with xanax. I had an x-ray the week I found I was pregnant and immediately became anxious even when told it would not affect the baby. I kept telling my PCP as well as my OB that I was having much more anxiety with this pregnancy than my last. I was worried all the time. I never really felt relaxed. My BP started to rise at 10 weeks, which of course made me anxious about PE again.
I know have borderline hypertension which I take a water pill for. This is an insane disease!

[lotsamom]

I'm another one with a history of anxiety AND preeclampsia.

[babyjames]

Hi ladies

I am just reading this for the first time today and was quite surprised of this study/finding. Because I am a naturally anxious person (and I'm not happy of that fact) does it mean that it's best if I go on anxiety meds before trying again??

[princess purr]

I am a very nervous person in general... I guess I really need to learn how to calm down... and maybe ask the peri about meds before I start trying again.

[caryn]

So far as I know, there's no evidence that meds will help. It's a correlation between diagnosed anxiety disorders, and preeclampsia, possibly related to genes which confer risk for both syndromes.