311 – Termination of Pregnancy and Mental Health

Abstract

Abortion may result in traumatized psyche as a complication. Trauma on a woman's thoughts, feelings, dreams, fantasies, intentions, and relations changing her attitude to life as such, to her nearest, also to the values and eventually to herself. The consequences occurring as uncontrolled chain reaction affect her family life, career and communication; they break her as personality and lead towards destruction. There is always a risk of suicide. In psychiatry, termination of pregnancy is very important as it can be a reason of developing psychopathology. The identified psychopathological symptoms meet the diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder which are considered a post-abortion syndrome. Psychopathology is distinguished by its personal, spiritually painful and stigmatized character. In the course of more than thirty years of clinical practice I have met, and medical documentation describes, about five hundred cases of post-abortion syndrome in Lithuania. The problem of termination of pregnancy exposes the tragic situation of family relations and discloses the destructive effects of the lack of love and warmth between nearest and dearest people, the poverty of sexual life, a woman's slavish behavior and dependence on a man.The topic has been highly syigmatized in Lithuania. Case presentation has been discussed.