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Pseudocyesis is a rare condition and consequently the topic of pseudocyesis has proved difficult to research and to find relevant articles and studies on. There are simply not many published programmes of research and case studies. Nevertheless I believe that there is enough substance to build a framework of understanding of pseudocyesis with and to explore the causation, presentation and treatment of the illness. The databases I have used to search for relevant studies and articles on the subject of pseudocyesis are Google Scholar, Medline UK and PsycINFO. The papers that I have found on these databases numbered twenty nine in total and have varied greatly in their quality and general usefulness, going from the fully published and accredited research papers to the, in my view, over-opinionated, sensationalised and anecdotal newspaper reports and internet blogs (see Appendix). In the course of conducting my database searches I also came across two internet support groups, Daily Strength and MedHelp, who each had a blog on the topic of pseudocyesis. The first had two brief comments (dated 18/08/14) from women simply stating that they had suffered with the condition and the latter blog had twenty comments (dated from 03/08/12 – 04/04/15) from laywomen offering empathy and sympathy to a woman who was retelling her struggle with the illness. The bulk of my database search findings have however been research commentaries but I have located a few programmes of research which I go on to discuss and analyse within the current research section of this literature review. Whilst there is rigorous literature out there to be found, having searched endlessly, I feel that there is simply not enough to do a truly in-depth review with and therefore I will perform a scoping review of the literature. The key words I have used in my database searches to find relevant articles include: pseudocyesis, phantom-pregnancy, depression in pregnancy, dopamine in pregnancy, endocrine changes in pregnancy, false pregnancy, ghost in the womb, prolactin in pregnancy, non-pregnancy, mental illness in pregnancy, peri-natal mental health, willing pregnancy, wishing pregnancy, enlarged womb. The results of these database searches will form the core of my literature review as there is a distinct lack of policy guidelines for clinicians treating patients who suffer from pseudocyesis, which in itself I believe evidences the difficulty for researchers in locating rigorous academic material on the subject because you cannot create clinical treatment policies without having rigorous academic material to base it upon.
The literature that I have reviewed covers discussion and debate on four main themes that surround the topic of pseudocyesis; psychological desire to become pregnant, the misdiagnosis of physical illnesses as a pregnancy, the role of medicinal side-effects in creating pregnancy like symptoms and the theory of a dual-diagnosis being present.
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