A key for perinatal depression early diagnosis: The body dissatisfaction

To test if the evaluation of body dissatisfaction by images could be an interesting tool to detect perinatal depression early in pregnancy, questioning patients about their body image instead of their depressive symptoms.

A sample of 457 women was recruited in a longitudinal study. Three evaluations were performed at the 4th and 8th months of pregnancy and during post-partum. During these evaluations, sociodemographic data were collected and psychiatric scales were completed, including Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Pictorial Body Image Scale (PBIS) and Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ).

33% of the women who were unsatisfied with their body image suffered from perinatal depression vs. 11.3% of the women who were not (p < 0.0001). The risk of perinatal depression was 4 times higher in women dissatisfied with their body image (p < 0.001) if unintended pregnancy and age are taken into account and is 3 times significantly higher in women with higher levels of eating disorders symptoms (p < 0.001) if unintended pregnancy and age are taken into account. Our sample was a privileged population, as often in the literature.

The administration of a simple scale (PBIS) during an early visit during pregnancy allows detecting perinatal depression. This should prevent the stigmatization of women during pregnancy and reduce the risk of not diagnosing depression during pregnancy and post-partum.