OBJECTIVES: Although there are studies investigating the relationship between anxiety disorders, depression, and hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), none have sufficiently clarified the link between underlying psychological processes and HG. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between rumination, worry, and HG and their possible triggering effects on HG.
METHODS: The study was designed as a prospective, self-reported, cohort research and the study sample consists of 350 pregnant women. Socio-demographic Form, Ruminative Thinking Style Questionnaire (RTSQ), Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-2), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to the participants at the first 6 weeks of their pregnancies (time 1). Second consultation was made to detect women with HG diagnosis between the 6 and 18 weeks’ gestation (time 2). Forty participants diagnosed with HG and 40 randomly chosen participants who had healthy pregnancy process at the end of the 18th gestational week were compared by using independent-samples T-test.
RESULTS: While there was no significant difference between the time 1 RTSQ scores and the time 1 BDI scores of the HG and control groups, time 1 STAI-2 scores of the HG group were found to be significantly higher than the control group.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that worry process plays an active role in the development of HG rather than rumination. As a well-known mechanism of trait anxiety, worry could be a vulnerability factor for HG.