Trajectory of perinatal mental health in India

Abstract

The global burden of psychiatric disorders in women is on the rise, especially in the perinatal period. Despite this, the recognition of the need and delivery of health care in women of reproductive age group is scarce and still met by unscientific treatment modalities. Such a scenario is luring in India as well. We have focused on discussing the impact of culture on the treatment practices, different challenges faced, nosological status, and management principles of different perinatal psychiatric disorders. We mainly employed the Google Scholar search engine to look into articles of all sorts (review articles, case reports, expert opinions, newspaper extracts, and Indian government websites) and reviewed them. We also acknowledged the information extracted from these articles which were highly valuable and enlightening. The perspective of the health-care delivery in the perinatal group of population has been changing over the years, but still there is lot to change. A holistic, scientific, evidence-based approach is a definite need toward attaining this goal.

Keywords

• Mental health
• perinatal psychiatry
• women