Clinical anxiety is common during the perinatal period, and anxiety symptoms often persist after childbirth. Ten to 30 % of perinatal women are diagnosed with panic disorder (PD)—far more than the 1.5–3% rate among the general population. Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been determined to be an effective treatment for PD, few studies have been conducted on CBT effectiveness in treating postpartum PD and, to the best of the knowledge of the present authors, no research has been conducted on postpartum PD among Japanese women. In this manuscript, we report on our administration of CBT to three postpartum patients with PD, detailing the improvement in their symptoms. All patients in this study were married, in their thirties, and diagnosed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview as having PD with agoraphobia. The Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) was used to evaluate patients’ panic symptoms and their severity. All patients received a total of 16 weekly 50-min sessions of CBT, and all completed the treatment. All patients were exceedingly preoccupied with the perception that a “mother must protect her child,” which reinforced the fear that “the continuation of their perinatal symptoms would prevent them from rearing their children”. After treatment, all participants’ panic symptoms were found to have decreased according to the PDSS, and two no longer met clinical criteria: Chihiro’s score changed from 13 to 3, Beth’s PDSS score at baseline from 22 to 6, and Tammy’s score changed from 7 to 1. CBT provides a therapeutic effect and is a feasible method for treating postpartum PD. It is important that therapists prescribe tasks that patients can perform collaboratively with their children.

中文翻译：

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产后恐慌症的认知行为疗法：一个病例系列

临床焦虑症在围产期很常见，并且分娩后通常会持续存在焦虑症状。围产期妇女中有10％到30％被诊断为恐慌症（PD），远远超过普通人群中1.5％至3％的比率。尽管已经确定认知行为疗法（CBT）是治疗PD的有效方法，但关于CBT治疗产后PD有效性的研究很少，并且就本作者所知，尚未进行关于产后PD的研究。日本女性中的PD。在本手稿中，我们报告了三名PD产后患者的CBT给药情况，详细介绍了他们的症状改善情况。本研究中的所有患者均已结婚，享年30岁，并通过《微型国际神经精神病学访谈》（Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview）诊断为患有广场恐惧症的PD。恐慌症严重程度量表（PDSS）用于评估患者的恐慌症状及其严重程度。所有患者共接受了16次每周50分钟的CBT疗程，并全部完成了治疗。所有患者都极为关注“母亲必须保护自己的孩子”的观念，这加剧了人们的担忧，即“持续的围产期症状会阻止他们抚养孩子”。治疗后，发现所有参与者的惊恐症状均已根据PDSS减轻，并且有两个不再符合临床标准：Chihiro的评分从13变为3，Beth的基线PDSS评分从22变为6，Tammy的评分从7变为1. CBT具有治疗作用，是治疗产后PD的可行方法。