The effectiveness of psychocurative on the anxiety scale and the levels of cortisol, serotonin, and prolactin in postpartum women

Abstract

Context: The anxiety experienced by mothers during postpartum may have a negative impact on the emotional, psychological, and social development of newborns. Moreover, a psychological intervention known as psychocurative aims to maintain a Person’s mental state, encompassing their cognitive, spiritual, social, and physical well-being. However, the impact of the intervention on hormonal changes during postpartum remains unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the impact of psychocurative intervention on levels of cortisol, serotonin, and prolactin, as well as the anxiety scale. Aims: To analyze the impact of psychocurative intervention on levels of cortisol, serotonin, and prolactin, as well as the anxiety scale. Methods: This study was quasi-experimental research and employed one-group pre-test and post-test designs. Moreover, the research subjects were twenty postpartum women at Sibela Public Health Center in Surakarta. Additionally, the Wilcoxon test was employed to analyze all variables. Furthermore, the intervention was given to the research subjects once a week in the mother’s class provided by the Sibela Public Health Center and twice at their homes. In addition, the DASS-21 was employed to measure the anxiety scale, while the ELISA test was employed to measure levels of cortisol, serotonin, and prolactin. All variables were evaluated before and after the intervention to see the significant impact. Results: The difference in the mean result of levels of cortisol, serotonin, and prolactin, as well as the anxiety before and after psychocurative intervention, was significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: Psychocurative has been demonstrated to increase serotonin and prolactin expression while decreasing cortisol levels and the anxiety scale.