IQWiG evidence report on psychological consequences of abortion

Abstract

The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Health to provide support for the further development of the S2k guideline on first-trimester abortion into an S3 guideline. To this end, the responsible guideline group formulated research questions that were answered in IQWiG evidence reports. One of the questions to be addressed was the evidence regarding the psychological consequences of an abortion in the first trimester compared to no abortion in the first trimester in pregnant women who wish to have an abortion. Asystematic search identified one relevant prospective comparative cohort study that reported results on the outcomes of clinically diagnosed depression and clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders. The evidence was evaluated in accordance with the methodological requirements of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) working group, as specified by the IQWiG methods. No significant differences were observed between the study groups with regard to the outcomes mentioned. The certainty of the evidence was rated as very low and downgraded due to study limitations and imprecision of the effects. Prospective comparative cohort studies that approach the research question under investigation should, inter alia, have adequate control for relevant confounders, asufficient number of participants, and acarefully planned collection of data on relevant outcomes.