Screening for postpartum depression

A prospective time-series descriptive design was used to screen for depression in puerperal women. Two measures of depression, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Atypical Depression Diagnostic Scale (ADDS), were selected to measure different aspects of depression. The measures were administered to 124 mothers twice in the prepartum period, with a 2-week intervening period, and twice in the postpartum period, with a 2-week intervening period. Results indicated that these instruments may not be effective to screen for postpartum depression. The ADDS overestimates the number of depressed women by counting as symptoms the normal changes of pregnancy and parturition. The BDI does the same and does not focusing on the primary symptoms of postpartum depression, such as being overwhelmed by motherhood and having thoughts of harming the baby. The need for a screening tool that measures the specific symptoms of postpartum depression as well as the severity of those symptoms is determined.