Second trimester miscarriage
Psychological and support interventions to reduce levels of stress, anxiety or depression on women’s subsequent pregnancy with a history of miscarriage: an empty systematic review
Our ‘empty’ systematic review highlights the need for randomised controlled studies to assess the effect of interventions to reduce stress in pregnant women with a history of miscarriage.
- Authors
Indra San Lázaro Campillo, Sarah Meaney, Karen McNamara, Keelin O'Donoghue
- Year
- 2017
- Journal Name
- BMJ Open
- Category
- Journal Article
- Keywords
- Miscarriage, Second-trimester miscarriage
- Project
Miscarriage in Ireland
- Full Citation
San Lazaro Campillo I, Meaney S, McNamara K, O'Donoghue K. Psychological and support interventions to reduce levels of stress, anxiety or depression on women’s subsequent pregnancy with a history of miscarriage: an empty systematic review. BMJ Open. 2017;7:e017802. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017802.
- Link to Publication
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017802
Abstract
Miscarriage is one of the most common complications in early pregnancy, occurring in approximately 25% of all pregnancies. It is well-established that women who experiencing miscarriage might suffer from stress, anxiety and depression. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) are a type of study in which a similar group of people are randomly divided into two or more groups to assess the benefits of specific drugs, treatments or other type of interventions. This review systematically looked at the published RCTs that compare the benefits of psychological and support interventions among pregnant women with a history of miscarriage. After screening a total of 4140 titles in the literature, we identified 17 RCTs. None of them met the criterion for participants to be pregnant during the study period, and therefore, this review was what some authors call an “empty” systematic review. In “empty” systematic reviews, the research question defined at the beginning of the study design cannot be answered and conclusions cannot be drawn. The finding of this review was unexpected given that there is a vast amount of evidence that states the need of assessing non-pharmacological interventions to reduce levels of stress, anxiety and depression among pregnant women with a history of miscarriage.