The contribution of psychology to research on congenital anomalies (CAs): computer-aided thematic analysis of international scientific literature

The paper aims at exploring the contribution of psychology-related research on Congenital Anomalies (CAs) from the analysis of international scientific literature. This could provide further knowledge to be integrated with biomedical evidence and contribute to the understanding of the risk and the protective factors which, according to a biopsychosocial perspective, may improve prevention strategies. A comprehensive search of academic literature was conducted on PsychINFO database resulting in 116 scientific publications published from 1931 to 2013. A qualitative software-based thematic analysis was carried out on the publications’ abstracts to explore the main themes relating to CAs as provided by psychology-related research. Overall, * Corresponding Author E-mail: andrea.caputo@uniroma1.it. Complimentary Contributor Copy 92 Andrea Caputo results highlighted a rapid increase of scientific psychology-related research on CAs after 2000, thus confirming the relevant attention to these diseases in healthcare policies over the last years. Five different thematic domains emerged which respectively refer to: schizophrenia (23.62%), psychiatric drugs (16.2%), parenting (25%), developmental neuropsychology (17.36%), and relationship with healthcare workers (17.82%). In sum, with regard to the prenatal/perinatal period, psychology-related research focuses on pregnancy-related factors such as maternal risk due to psychopathological conditions, prenatal consultation and more widely healthcare workers’ diagnosis/communication skills about CAs. Instead, the postnatal period deals with cognitive and emotional development of children with CAs by promoting parental skills and detecting rehabilitation strategies for improving residual cognitive abilities. Then, the analysis on the main trends of psychology-related research on CAs highlighted two issues. The first one concerns the shift of psychological science between psychopathology and disability as research objects. The second issue pertains to the different social impacts of CAs and the relevance of both health and family care.