After a post-dural puncture headache, an escalated occurrence of postnatal depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic headache and back pain and reduced breastfeeding in women, as portrayed from a retrospective, cohort study in ‘European Journal of Anaesthesiology’. Post-dural puncture headache following accidental dural puncture through labour may be the reason for chronic sequelae.

Sharon Orbach-Zinger al. examined the occurrence of postnatal depression, PTSD, chronic headache, back pain and breastfeeding rates following a post-dural puncture headache.

This retrospective, case-matched cohort study comprised of a review of documented cases of dural puncture and matched case controls.

A telephone interview of women with a documented post-dural puncture headache (study cohort) and women with uneventful labour epidurals (controls) in the same 1 day period was performed. Postnatal depression was considered as a primary outcome.

The women suffering from postdural puncture headache (n = 132) and controls (n = 276) had comparable demographic data. The occurrence of factors under consideration has been described in the following table:

As observed, PTSD was more frequent among women with post-dural puncture headache. These women also breastfed less and had more frequent occurrences of headache and backache.