Fear of Childbirth (Tokophobia) - Etiology, Essence and Clinical Implications

Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Phobias

Treatments: Behavioral: Psychological Treatment; Behavioral: Group Therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00801970

TASMC-08-MB-0064-CTIL

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is twofold:

• to understand the etiology and the essence of fear of childbirth
• to examine the implications and efficiency of several forms of psychological therapy.

Full description

Fear of childbirth (Tokophobia) is inconsistently defined in the research literature: some define it as an anxiety disorder while it is often defined as a form of phobia; some regard only the pre-pregnancy period, some regard the anxiety during pregnancy and some focus on the labor process. Despite the high prevalence (between 13%-20% of fertile women), research in this area is scarce and the current findings are incohesive due to various conceptualizations of the phenomenon and to various measurement methods.

Enrollment: 150 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• subjective diagnosis of tokophobia

Exclusion criteria

• currently undergoing psychological therapy
• Major Depression
• Acute Anxiety
• Psychosis
• Bipolar Disorder
• Suicidal
• Substance abuse
• Non-compliant personality disorder
• Health problems during pregnancy that affect perception

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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150 participants in 4 patient groups

1 - Pregnant - Tokophobic

Experimental group

Description:

Psychoanalysis treatment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychological Treatment

2 - Pregnant - Tokophobic

Experimental group

Description:

Cognitive-Behavioral treatment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychological Treatment

3 - Non-pregnant - Tokophobic

Experimental group

Description:

Group Therapy

Treatment:

Behavioral: Group Therapy

4 - Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Pregnant and non-pregnant non-tokophobic women will answer questionnaires. Won't receive therapy.