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Types and Characteristics of Short‐Term Course of Depression after Delivery: Using Zung's Self‐Rating Depression Scale
Author(s) -
Tsukasaki Minoru,
Ohta Yasuyuki,
Oishi Kazuyo,
Miyaichi Kazuko,
Kato Nachiko
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1819.1991.tb01178.x
Subject(s) - childbirth , depression (economics) , edinburgh postnatal depression scale , medicine , rating scale , pregnancy , postpartum depression , psychology , psychiatry , obstetrics , depressive symptoms , anxiety , developmental psychology , macroeconomics , genetics , biology , economics
In order to clarify the prevalence and clinical features of so‐called “maternity blues” and the relationship with depression after delivery, we conducted a prospective study on 220 mothers using the Zung's Self‐Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) 4–7 days after childbirth and again one month after childbirth. Their physical condition during their pregnancy had been evaluated earlier. As in a previous epidemiological study conducted in Japan, we classified subjects with a ZSDS score of 60 and over as a high scoring group. Eighteen mothers (8.18%) fell into this group (“maternity blues” group) in the one week post‐partum evaluation. Comparing the ZSDS scores one month after childbirth with the earlier scores, in 10 women (4.5%), their scores decreased from 60 and over to below 60 (a “maternity bines” core group), and in 8 women (3.6%), their scores were still over 60 (a prolonged “maternity blues” group). Eleven (5.0%) out of the 202 women whose scores at one week after childbirth were below 60 showed a high score (60 and over) one month after childbirth (a potential depression group). All in, 191 women scored below 60 in both evaluations. Although we could divide the subjects into 4 groups as described above, we could not find any clinical symptoms to distinguish between the 3 groups with “maternity blues” or depression in the evaluation one week after childbirth. However, one finding suggests that these three groups may have different features.