Phobias
Conditions
Keywords
Fear of childbirth, Tokophobia, Anxiety, Labor, Pregnancy, Cognitive-behavioral, Psychoanalysis, Group Therapy, etiology
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is twofold: * to understand the etiology and the essence of fear of childbirth * to examine the implications and efficiency of several forms of psychological therapy.
Detailed description
Fear of childbirth (Tokophobia) is inconsistently defined in the research literature: some define it as an anxiety disorder while it is often defined as a form of phobia; some regard only the pre-pregnancy period, some regard the anxiety during pregnancy and some focus on the labor process. Despite the high prevalence (between 13%-20% of fertile women), research in this area is scarce and the current findings are incohesive due to various conceptualizations of the phenomenon and to various measurement methods.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPsychological Treatment
15 weekly therapy sessions.
BEHAVIORALGroup Therapy
3 months of weekly group therapy sessions.
Sponsors
Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* subjective diagnosis of tokophobia
Exclusion criteria
* currently undergoing psychological therapy * Major Depression * Acute Anxiety * Psychosis * Bipolar Disorder * Suicidal * Substance abuse * Non-compliant personality disorder * Health problems during pregnancy that affect perception
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Tokophobia existing and new measures (e.g. Pregnancy anxiety scale, Levin, 1991; Tokophobia subjective scale) | Pre-treatment, Mid treatment, End of treatment |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| For pregnant subjects - labor preference, duration and pain medication assessment. | post-labor |
Countries
Israel
Contacts
Primary ContactShulamit Ben-Itzhak, PhD
Outcome results
None listed