RESUMEN
Transition to motherhood is a period full of challenges and demands. In this review, we focused on the associations of sleep and circadian activity patterns during and after pregnancy with postpartum mental health factors. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted (PROSPERO reference 316,505). A search for articles was performed using PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane, DARE, hand search, and citation tracking. The search was meant to identify peer-reviewed, experimental and observational studies reporting on women over 18 years old that assessed sleep and circadian activity patterns during pregnancy or postpartum using actigraphy, and investigated postpartum mental health factors. Nineteen relevant publications were selected. Postpartum total sleep at night was the indicator that was most closely related to the psychological functioning of women after childbirth. The results of the systematic review indicated that postpartum total sleep at night was related to postpartum fatigue, and the results of the meta-analysis suggested that total sleep at night was most strongly linked with postpartum depression. More studies are needed to estimate the associations of sleep-wake rhythm during pregnancy and in the postpartum period with postpartum mental health factors.
RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Cognitive impairment in depression can present as subjective or objective, but the intensity of the former is higher and is not correlated with the deficits measured in neuropsychological tests. We hypothesised that rumination would be associated with subjective cognitive impairment. METHODS: The study was performed through the online PsyToolkit platform. It included 168 healthy people and 93 people with depression. To examine memory, a recognition-type task was used with emotionally charged words as the stimulus. Depression symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II, subjective cognitive impairment with the Perceived Deficits Questionnaire-20, and intensity of rumination with the Polish Questionnaire of Rumination. RESULTS: MDD patients had significantly higher levels of depression symptoms, rumination, and subjective cognitive deficits than the control group. In the memory task, the MDD group had a higher error rate than the control group. In hierarchical regression analysis, depression and rumination were found to be significant predictors of subjective cognitive impairment, whereas objective memory performance was not. Exploratory analyses revealed that rumination mediates the association between depression and subjective cognitive complaints. CONCLUSION: Cognitive problems are common in depression and affect the quality of life. The results suggest that patients with depression have higher levels of rumination and subjective memory impairment, and that there is no direct link between subjective and objective cognitive decline. The findings may have implications for the development of effective treatment strategies for depression and cognitive impairment.