Archives
Community-Based Postpartum Depression Screening Within the First Month After Delivery
June Andrews Horowitz
Professor, William F Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachussetts, United States of America
Abstract
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common childbirth complication. Approximately 500,000 women in the United States each year experience PPD, and about half of these women are not evaluated or treated appropriately. Although available screening measures can detect PPD symptoms, screening is not yet standard practice.
This article presents outcomes from PPD screening of a community-based sample of 1,071 women at 2-4 weeks after delivery. Overall PPD symptom prevalence was 19.7%. Detection of PPD could be increased significantly by adapting research-based screening approaches to clinical care.
Keywords
postpartum depression, screening, childbirth, mental health
References
Affonso DD, De A, Horowitz JA and Mayberry LJ (2000) An international comparative study exploring postpartum depression symptoms. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 49: 207-216.
American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; DSM-IV-TR 5th edn. Washington DC: Author.
Austin MP and Lumley J (2003) Antenatal screening for postnatal depression: A systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 107(1): 10-17.
Beck CT (1996) Postpartum depressed mothers' experiences interacting with their children. Nursing Research 45: 98-104.
Beck CT (1998) A checklist to identify women at risk for developing postpartum depression. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 27: 39-46.
Beck CT and Gable RK (2001) Postpartum Depression Screening Scale. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
Beck CT (2002) Revision of the postpartum depression predictors inventory. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 31: 394-402.
Beeghly M, Weinberg MK, Olson KL, Kernan H, Riley JM and Tronick EZ (2002) Stability and change in level of maternal depressive symptomatology during the first postpartum year. Journal of Affective Disorders 71: 169-180.
Campbell SB and Cohn JF (1997) The timing and chronicity of postpartum depression: Implications for infant development. In Murray L and Cooper PJ (eds) Postpartum depression and child development, pp.165-197. New York: The Guilford Press.
Cooper P, Murray L, Hooper R and West A (1996) The development and validation of a predictive index for postpartum depression. Psychological Medicine 26: 627-634.
Cox JL, Chapman G, Murray D and Jones P (1996) Validation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in non-postnatal women. Journal of Affective Disorders 39: 185-189.
Cox JL, Holden JM and Sagovsky R (1987) Detection of postnatal depression: development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 150: 782-786.
Davies BR, Howells S and Jenkins M (2003) Early detection and treatment of postnatal depression in primary care. Journal of Advanced Nursing 44: 248-255.
Dennis C-LE, Janssen PA and Singer J (2004) Identifying women at-risk for postpartum depression in the immediate postpartum. Acta Psychiatr Scand 110: 338-346.
Driscoll JW (2005) Recognizing women's common mental health problems: The earthquake assessment model. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 34: 246-254.
Gaynes BN, Gavin N, Mettzer-Brody S, Lohr KN, Swinson T and Gartlehner G (2005) Perinatal depression: Prevalence, screening accuracy, and screening outcomes Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No 119. Prepared by the RTI-University of North Carolina Evidence-based Center, under Contract No 290-02-0016. AHRQ Publication No 05-E006-2. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Georgiopoulos AM, Bryan TL, Yawn BP, Houston MS, Rummans TA and Therneau TM (1999) Obstetrics and Gynecology 93(5 Part 1): 653-657.
Gorman LL, O'Hara MW, Figueiredo B, Hayes S, Jacquemain F, Kammerer MH, Klier CM, Rosi S, Seneviratne G, Sutter-Dallay AL and the TCS-PND Group (2004) Adaptation of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV disorders for assessing depression in women during pregnancy and postpartum across countries and cultures. The British Journal of Psychiatry 184 (Supplement 46): s17-s23.
Hagan EH (1999) The functions of postpartum depression. Evolution and Human Behavior 20: 325-359.
Hearn G, Illiff A, Jones I, Kirby A, Ormiston P, Parr P, Rout J and Wardman L (1998) Postnatal depression in the community. British Journal of General Practice 48: 1064-1066.
Horowitz JA (1997-1999) Promoting healthy responsiveness between depressed mothers and their infants. March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, Grant No 12-FY98-0014.
Horowitz JA, Bell M, Trybulski J, Munro BH, Moser DM, Hartz SA, McCordic L and Sokol ES (2001) Promoting responsiveness between mothers with depressive symptoms and their infants. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 33: 323-329.
Horowitz JA, Damato E, Solon L, von Metzsch G and Gill V (1995) Postpartum depression: Issues in clinical assessment. Journal of Perinatology 15: 268-278.
Horowitz JA, Damato E, Solon L and von Metzsch G (1996) Identification of risk factors and symptoms of postpartum depression: Linking research to practice. Journal of Perinatology 16, 360-365.
Horowitz JA and Goodman J (2004) A longitudinal study of maternal postpartum depression symptoms. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice 18: 149-164.
Horowitz JA and Goodman J (2005) Identifying and treating postpartum depression. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 34: 264-273.
Josefsson A, Berg G, Nordin C and Sydsjo G (2001) Prevalence of depressive symptoms in late pregnancy and postpartum. Acta Obstetricia Gynecologica Scandinavica 80: 251-255.
Kennedy HP, Beck CT and Driscoll JW (2002) A light in the fog: Caring for women with postpartum depression. Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health 47(5): 318-330.
McIntosh J (1993) The experience of motherhood and the development of depression in the postnatal period. Journal of Clinical Nursing 2: 243-249.
Mercer RT (2004) Becoming a mother versus maternal role attainment. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 36(3): 226-232.
Minkovitz CS, Strobino D, Scharfstein D, Hou W, Miller T, Mistry KB and Swartz K (2005) Maternal depressive symptoms and children's receipt of health care in the first 3 years of life. Pediatrics 115: 304-314.
Morris-Rush JK, Freda MC and Bernstein PS (2003) Screening for postpartum depression in an inner-city population. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 188:1217-1219.
Nielson-Forman D, Videbech P, Hedegaard M, Dalby-Salvig J and Secher N J (2000) Postpartum depression: Identification of women at risk. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 107: 1210-1217.
O'Hara M (1997) The nature of postpartum depressive disorders. In Murray L and Cooper PJ (eds) Postpartum depression and child development, pp.3-31. New York: The Guilford Press.
O'Hara MW and Swain AM (1996) Rates and risk of postpartum depression: A meta-analysis. International Review of Psychiatry 8: 37-54.
Peindl KS, Wisner KL and Hanusa BH (2004) Identifying depression in the first postpartum year: Guidelines for office-based screening and referral. Journal of Affective Disorders 80: 37-44.
Posmontier B and Horowitz JH (2004) Postpartum practices and depression prevalences: Technocentric and ethnokinship cultural perspectives. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 15: 34-43.
Ramsey R (1993) Postnatal depression. Lancet 341, 1358.
Regier DA, Narrow WE, Rae DS, Manderscheid RW, Locke BZ and Goodwin FK (1993) The de facto US mental and addictive disorders service system: Epidemiologic Catchment Area prospective 1-year prevalence rates of disorders and services. Archives of General Psychiatry 50: 85-94.
Sichel D (2000) Postpartum psychiatric disorders. In Steiner M, Yonkers KA and Eriksson E (eds) Mood disorders in women, pp.313-326. London: Martin Dunitz, Ltd.
Sichel D and Driscoll JW (2000) Women's moods: What every woman must know about hormones, the brain, and emotional health. New York, NY: Quill, HarperCollins Publishers.
Teti D and Gelfand D (1997) Maternal cognition as mediators of child outcomes in the context of postpartum depression. In Murray L and Cooper PJ (eds) Postpartum depression and child development, pp.136-164. New York: The Guilford Press.
Thompson WM, Harris B, Lazarus J and Richards C (1998) A comparison of the performance of rating scales used in the diagnosis of postnatal depression. Acta Psychiatr Scand 98: 224-227.
Webster J, Pritchard MA, Creedy D and East C (2003) A simplified predictive index for the detection of women at risk for postnatal depression, Birth 30: 101-108.
Weinberg MK, Tronick E, Beeghly, Olson KL, Kernan H, Riley JM (2001) Subsyndromal depressive symptoms and major depression in postpartum women. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 7: 87-97.
Wisner K, Parry B and Piontek C (2002) Postpartum depression. New England Journal of Medicine 347(3): 194-198.
eContent Home