Somatic symptoms and psychological features in postpartum female patients with cold-sensitivity constitution

  Background  Cold-Sensitivity Constitution (CSC) in postpartum women is an important health-related topic under the Chinese culture and Chinese Traditional Medicine. However, few empirical research in this area has been conducted in China.

  Objective  To recognize the somatic symptoms, psychological features in postpartum female patients with CSC, and explore the correlations between somatic symptoms and depression, as well that with anxiety.

  Methods  Data about 55 postpartum female patients with CSC diagnosed in the outpatient clinic of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, the First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, from May 2018 to June 2020, were collected and retrospectively analyzed, including Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). Pearson correlation analysis was used to study the correlations between PHQ-15 and anxiety or depression.

  Results  Totally 55 postpartum female patients with CSC were included in this study, their age ranged from 24-42 years (average age of 32.98 ± 4.49 years). The median time to CSC occurred after delivery was 3 (2, 4) months. Multiple somatic symptoms, characterized as PHQ-15 ≥10 points, were found in 35 patients (63.6%). The most common somatic symptoms included feeling tired or having low energy (n=51, 92.7%), pain in arms, legs, or joints (knees, hips, etc.) (n=50, 90.9%) and troubles in sleeping (n=44, 80.0%) successively. Depression was found in 44 patients (80.0%) (PDSS ≥76.5 points), anxiety was found in 28 patients (50.9%) (SAS ≥50 points), and 27 patients (49.1%) were found to be concurrent with depression and anxiety. In correlation analysis, the score of PHQ-15 was positively correlated with SAS (r=0.437, P=0.001), while the score of PHQ-15 was not correlated with PDSS (r=0.084, P>0.05).

  Conclusion  Multiple somatic symptoms are common in postpartum female patients with CSC, who are prone to be in depression and anxiety, the severity of somatic symptoms is positively correlated with the extent of anxiety.