The Psychogenic Etiology of Premature Births A Preliminary Report

The hypothesis that psychological factors are significant in the etiology of certain premature births is studied. The subjects were 30 women who delivered prema-turely in the absence of any accountable medical factor and 30 matched control mothers of term infants. After psychiatric and psychologic clinical study, each case was scored on a rating scale of pertinent personality traits and studied statistically for discrimination of the two groups. To check rater bias, another psychologist performed a blind rerating of the 60 psychological protocols after cues relating to premature or term status were deleted. The premature group showed distinctive clinical and statistical differences, including more negative attitudes to the preg-nancy, greater emotional immaturity, more body narcissism, and less adequate reso-lution of familial Oedipal problems. Based on the findings, a predictive self-report-ing questionnaire test of prematurity was devised. XHEMATURE BIBTHS are a serious public ty. However, the etiology of prematurity health problem with regard to perinatal is largely unknown. mortality and neuropsychiatric morbidi- Though considerable advance has been-, „ T~T n.u ii on. A i M i-, o made in medical and physiological care Presented at the 118th Annual Meeting of the. v i _ if i American Psychiatric Association, May 10,1962, o r premature babies, the mortality IS stil