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Use of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale in a Collaborative Obstetric Practice
Author(s) -
Mancini Felicia,
Carlson Cristina,
Albers Leah
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of midwifery and women's health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.543
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1542-2011
pISSN - 1526-9523
DOI - 10.1016/j.jmwh.2007.03.007
Subject(s) - postpartum depression , medicine , confidence interval , depression (economics) , edinburgh postnatal depression scale , history of depression , logistic regression , obstetrics , miscarriage , pregnancy , odds ratio , psychiatry , depressive symptoms , anxiety , genetics , macroeconomics , economics , biology
Postpartum depression is a clinical depressive episode that occurs in 13% to 20% of women after birth or miscarriage. This illness has potentially devastating consequences for both mother and infant, and is thought to be highly underreported and under‐diagnosed. Our study examined the use of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) in a high‐volume collaborative obstetric and midwifery practice. The prevalence of women with a positive screen for major postpartum depression in our study was 16%, which is consistent with other studies. An additional 20% of the participants had symptoms that indicated a potential postpartum depression. Obstetric clinicians were willing to use the PDSS, and 15 of 20 clinicians actively participated in the study. Women who had a positive screen at 6 weeks after birth were more likely to have not completed a high school education, be unpartnered, be exclusively bottle feeding, and have a history of depression. Two variables were statistically significant predictors of screening positively with the PDSS following logistic regression: history of depression (risk ratio, 4.8; 95% confidence interval, 4.4–5.2) and exclusive bottle feeding (risk ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.6–2.4).