Aetiological Factors and Reaction Types in Psychoses Following Childbirth

Re-examination of the various problems arising from psychoses following childbirth is of interest for various reasons. Firstly, their place in the system of psychiatry is far from clear; their original description under the term “puerperal insanity” (Kraepelin) had given rise to the idea that they represented a clinical entity. According to Kraepelin the great majority of these psychoses take the form of catatonic states and only a few are of the manic-depressive group. More recent investigators, however, have shown that there is no psychotic reaction peculiar to childbirth (Clarke, Kilpatrick and Tiebout, Zilboorg, Saunders, James, Strecker and Ebaugh, Harris, Karnosh and Hope, and Piker). In these contributions the importance of the accompanying environmental and sociological factors has also received consideration.