What are the statistics on postnatal depression?
Friday, December 4th, 2009 at
1:08 am
Tagged with: Depression • Postnatal • statistics
Filed under: Postnatal Depression
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Background
The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a 10 item self-rating post-natal depression scale which has seen widespread use in epidemiological and clinical studies. Concern has been raised over the validity of the EPDS as a single summed scale, with suggestions that it measures two separate aspects, one of depressive feelings, the other of anxiety.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16768803
Postpartum depression (also postnatal depression) is a form of major depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual prevalence rate unclear. Postpartum depression ranges in severity from mild to suicidal.
Its important to note that although up to 80% of postpartum women suffer from the ‘Baby blues’ (or maternity blues) which is merely a mild and transitory form of ‘moodiness’ where symptoms typically last from a few hours to several days, and include tearfulness, irritability, hypochondriasis, sleeplessness, impairment of concentration, isolation and headache. The maternity blues are not considered a postpartum depressive disorder.