Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing

Biography

Biography: Bronwyn Huggins

Abstract

Women who experience minimal support during the pregnancy period are at greater risk to develop mood disorders before, during and after pregnancy. When mood disturbances are compounded by psychosocial stressors such as intimate partner violence (IPV), poor social supports, lack economic mobility and social capital, community disruption, unstable housing, etc.—women are more likely to experience chronic illness, and oftentimes less likely to seek care. Research has shown that increased stress on mother during pregnancy translates to stress on the fetus. By extension, after a child is born, the untreated mood disorder can lead to subsequent trauma in the form of physical and emotional neglect, poor mother-baby attachment that culminate in a variety of adverse childhood experiences and increased risk for the development of mental illness in the child, thus continuing a cycle of non-biological inherited illness. This form of inter-generational trauma disproportionately affects lower socioeconomic populations. I intend to present a case report of a 21 y/o black woman who presented who is HIV+, perinatally infected and intermittently adherent to ART. She presented with her 11-month old son, with complaints of feeling ‘overwhelmed’. She reported features of PTSD, IPV, substance use, poor psychosocial supports, neurovegetative symptoms and passive suicidal ideation. During the interview, the infant grew cranky and the patient exhibited low frustration tolerance and irritability, displaced on the child. The infant was tended by a case manager while we completed the assessment and scheduled follow-up. The patient did not adhere to follow-up, despite continued outreach efforts. The purpose of this report is to highlight the experience of women who seek help only when in crisis, and bring attention to the need for earlier interventions in efforts to break the cycle of mental illness stemming from psychosocial/epigenetic