Transcript Observations on the Post Abortion Syndrome

Observations on the
Post Abortion Syndrome
DOES IT REALLY EXIST?
Yes it does!
In spite of opinions that are
published to the contrary. There is
scientific evidence to document the
validity of the diagnosis!
 Published reports in refereed
journals provide us wit the validity of
the harmful effects of abortion. They
are:

– physical and
– psychological
Physical Harm

10% of all abortions have unintended
complications. They are:
– Infection occurs in 27% of the patients
– 3to 5% of all women become sterile and
are more likely to have ectopic
pregnancies
– Cervical lacerations occur in 22% of eh
women that later result in early
deliveries or in miscarriages
– Finally there is a 30% increased
incidence of breast cancer in women
who have first pregnancy abortions
Psychological Harm

There is only one positive
emotional response to abortion
and it is relief.
– Relief from the embarrassment of
having an unwanted child if the
are single and
– Relief from the potential duty of
rearing an unwanted child
Psychological Harm

Even if there are positive
effects 40 to 60% have negative
emotional responses. These
are:
–
–
–
–
55% have unremitting guilt
31% have regrets
33% have sleep disturbances
10% have serious psychiatric
problems immediately afterwards
Psychological Harm
The greatest psychiatric harm
occurs in women under 17 years
of age.
 Interestingly there is in many a
period of denial of 5 to 7 years
that is used to prevent negative
feelings from rising in
consciousness.

Psychological Harm
25% of all women who had an
abortion eventually saw a
psychiatrist for disturbing symptoms,
vs 3% of women who delivered
normally.
 Among a large group of patients

– 46% had feelings of self hatred
– 49% used drugs and
– 39% either began to use alcohol or
increased their use
Psychological harm
60% reported suicidal ideas
 28% attempted suicide. 50%
repeated the attempt
 There is an incidence of
completed suicide that is 6
times greater in women after
abortion compared with those
who delivered normally.

Psychological harm

What about men?
– It is reported that 75% of men who
accompany their consorts to have an
abortion have psychiatric sequelae.
– It is also true that siblings who know
their mother had an abortion are also
affected negatively. This affects their
feelings of wantedness
Etiologic
Abortion can give rise to major
depression serving as a precipitating
factor
 It can give rise to an existential
depression that mimics major
depression or dysthymic disorder
 It can cause a person to abuse drugs
and alcohol
 It can be etiologic in Anorexia
Nervosa or bulimorexia

Case Illustrations
I have seen over 300 women
who have had illnesses that
were caused by abortions or to
which abortion was a major
contributor
 I will present three of these

Cases

Case 1. This woman was a 43 year
old wife of a physician who had been
ill for three years. Her main
complaint was an intractable
depression that had not responded
to treatment. Many medications had
been tried and she only got partial
relief. She was self referred to me
for a second opinion.
Case 1

When my efforts at treatment using
different meds and cognitive
behavioral therapy did not result in
relief I decided to review her history.
There were three major factors that
seemed to be contributory. They
were:
– 1. She had been rejected as a Bible
study leader and her faith had been
questioned
Case 1
– 2. She was under great pressure a
mother and church leader
– 3 she had been in an auto accident with
her son, but neither had been injured.
Her car was totaled, though, when she
rolled it.

She detailed her history of thse
factors, but it was not until she told
me of the accident that I learned
something new.
Case 1
She told me that she was taking
her dyslexic son for treatment
in a nearby city when she
detailed how she rolled her
Volkswagen.
 After she told me of the
accident I asked her what she
thought as the car rolled over.

Case 1
She said, “Now I will have killed
both my sons!”
 “But you have only one son,” I
said.
 “ Oh! I didn’t tell you. I had an
abortion. I knew he was going
to be a boy, and I was going to
name him Christopher.”

Case 1

With this knowledge we used a
spiritual intervention called
“Requiem Healing.” During the
intervention she had profound
emotional release and in one
week was symptom free. Her
meds were DC’d and she has
remained well for over 28 years.
Case 2.

She was a 30+ year old woman who
presented with intractable suicidal
ruminations She had been
hospitalized 5 times before for
suicidal intent. I did all I could to
relieve her depression using all the
interventions I had available, and
finally had to discharge her only
slightly improved. Some months
after she went home she committed
suicide
Case 3
She was the unmarried daughter of a
high official in the Malagasy
Lutheran Church. It is illustrative of
a 20 year old woman who lived in
Madagascar.
 I was in the country teaching
primary care physicians basic
psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.
 I was asked to see her because she
was displaying psychotic symptoms
that had not responded to treatment
by 1 of the countries 6 psychiatrists.

Treatment
I noted in case 1 that we used a
intervention called “Requiem
Healing”
 This was used in the other two
cases as well with equally good
results.
 What is it?

Treatment Theory

Etiologically I have to say that
one has to understand what
happens when a woman
becomes aware of her
pregnancy. The child instantly
becomes a part of her
psychospiritually. The process
was called by Bowlby (1982)
“attachment”
Treatment Theory

However, Julian Marias in his book
Metaphysical Anthropology called it
“installation.” The latter word
indicates that it is in internal event.
He points out that all relationships
involve installation. Those of a
person with a spouse, a child, a
friend and God.
Treatment Theory

We were all created with a
radical need for relationships
– With a mate
– With children
– With friends
– With God
Treatment Theory
Installation is complete and
instantaneous in pregnancy
 And in conversion with God
 It is a process but becomes
complete in time in the
installation of a mate
 And is gradual, but partial with
a friend

Treatment Theory
When we install any of these
people we live our lives for
them.
 Wherever we go they go too
 The same is true for the person
with whom we have a
relationship

Treatment theory
The installation is a
supernatural phenomenon
 The installation is extremely
strong and can be ended only
with great mental work or by
death
 The mental work necessary for
ending it is called grief

Treatment
If indeed the fetus is installed
completely in the woman it is clear
that she must grieve to end her
relationship with the person Francke
called the “Little ghost within.”
 Since she is not allowed to grieve
either by providers or her mate she
has unresolved grief. It gives rise to
the emotional symptoms we
described earlier

Treatment

In the 1980’s Sack described
the consequences of
spontaneous abortions
– 1. Others do not know the woman
is pregnant
– 2. The woman is embarrassed to
tell people she has lost a baby
– 3. She has not usually identified
the baby as a person
Treatment
4. She is not able to identify the
baby as someone else
 5.She rarely sees the baby she
a has lost
 6. There is no funeral so they
can only fantasize about its sex,
size and personality

Treatment
7. There is rarely recognition by
the caregiver that a significant
event has occurred
 8. No one encourages her to
grieve
 9. There is no anticipatory
grieving

Treatment
Several authors have
commented on the need to
resolve the grief, but few have
offered any methodology to
bring about the resolution
 There is a 1944 study by
Lindemann that does offer help

Treatment

Lindemann has best described
the role of religion in the
process of grief resolution in
his observations on the
psychiatric aftermath of the
Coconut Grove fire.
Treatment
Fisher has utilized his work in a
program for the resolution for
grief in widows.
 Kenneth McAll did the same for
abortion

Treatment
I fist learned of this method in
1978 when I met Dr. McAll
 He had observed that many
women he treated who had
abortions would be healed if a
memorial service similar to the
Catholic Requiem Mass would
be performed

Treatment
He collected an enormous
number of cases beginning in
1950 of women who were
healed using the technique of
“Requiem Healing.”
 Among these in time were 441
cases of anorexia nervosa

Treatment

Since I was seeing more an
more women who had abortions
and were had developed
disabling symptoms after the
procedure I used his techniques
with results similar to those he
got.
Treatment
If I ascertain that the woman had an
abortion or miscarriage as a
determinant of her illness
 I ascertain her level of spirituality

– This is done by taking a spiritual history
– If I think she is sufficiently spiritually
sophisticated I ask if she had any
notions as to the sex of the child an
what she would have named him/her.
Treatment
I then get her to describe her
feelings at the time of the
abortion and afterward
 I then try to help her understand
the future she has with the child
 This future is base on a hopeful
biblical understanding of the
afterlife.

Treatment
We then conduct a service that
is a modified service used by
Methodists for the communion
service
 One can use the service for the
dead in the book of common
prayer

Treatment
This is modified to include in
the prayer of confession the
admission that the woman took
the life of the child and is truly
sorry for doing so
 After the confession they
commit the child to the Lord
while visualizing their doing so

Treatment
In the visualizing of the release of
the child, they see themselves
standing at the threshold of God’s
kingdom
 In the background is the light of
god’s presence
 The patient then visualizes angels
coming to the threshold and the
mother passes the baby to the
angels who carry it off into the light
of God’s presence

Treatment
The mother tells the child goodbye. We end by repeating the
Lord’s prayer
 If possible the Eucharist is
celebrated at this time
 The latter is not necessary for
resolution of their grief

Comments
There has been at times
enormous resistance to
integrating faith with the
practice of medicine or
psychiatry
 Even so over 80 medical schools
have courses in spirituality and
medicine

Comments
There has though been steady
progress in bringing about his
integration
 Psychiatry has however not
shown much interest, but
instead had turned to using
medications to treat everything

Comments
Managed health care has
precipitated this change
 So we now neglect the
psychological and spiritual
aspects of our patients
problems and end up treating
major mental illnesses

Comments
Residency training provides
little instruction in anything
besides the biological aspects
of our patients illness
 To handle these problems the
patient is referred to counselors
and psychologists who are ill
prepared to treat them

Comments

Why?
– They like most psychiatrists
 Deny the supernatural,
 have a limited worldview,
 are not taught about the nature of
man,
 do not understand that man is a
spiritual being,
 and do not know how to use spiritual
interventions,
William P. Wilson MD
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry
 Duke University Medical Center
 Distinguished Professor of
Counseling
 Carolina Evangelical Divinity School
 www.InstChristiangrowth.org
 [email protected]
