THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGES IN IMMUNE STATUS AND DISORDERS OF PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL STATE IN PREGNANT WOMEN WITH IN VITRO FERTILIZATION AND THREATENED PREMATURE BIRTH

Abstract

Women who experience failures at the stage of fertilization or during pregnancy can develop psycho-emotional stress as a result of prolonged negative emotions with a high level of anxiety, neurotic conflict, often accompanied by a complicated pregnancy. The international academic literature discusses a possible link between high levels of anxiety and depression, on the one hand, and changes in the state of the immune system, on the other. The aim of the research was to identify the relationship between psycho-emotional changes in pregnant women with in vitro fertilization and threatened premature birth and changes in their immune status. The psycho-emotional state was studied in 60 women in the second trimester of pregnancy with a history of infertility, whose pregnancy resulted from IVF, and with threatened premature birth. As a control group, 20 healthy women with a physiological course of pregnancy were examined. The levels of trait (TA) and state anxiety (SA), as well as the degree of depressive disorders in these women, were assessed. In parallel, the levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and the state of cellular-humoral immunity were determined, looking for correlations between these indicators, the levels of anxiety, and manifestations of depression in the examined patients. Pregnant women with in vitro fertilization and threatened premature birth revealed high levels of state (53.3% of women) and trait (56.8% of women) anxiety; 70% of pregnant women are dominated by euphoric, anxious, and depressive types of the psychological component of gestational dominant; 33.3% of the examined women demonstrated a state of mild and masked depression. Correlations were found between an increase in SA and TA scores and an elevated concentration of TNF-α and INF-γ, as well as between an increase in the level of TNF-α and the score of depression. A connection was found between a decrease in the number of T-helpers and an increase in the TA score in the examined patients.