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Depression During Pregnancy More Common Than Postpartum Depression

LONDON (Reuters Health) Aug 02 - Despite receiving much attention, postpartum depression appears to be less common than depression during pregnancy, according to a report published in the August 4th issue of the British Medical Journal.

Dr. Jonathan Evans, from the University of Bristol, in the UK, and colleagues used a postal questionnaire to assess the incidence and severity of depression in 9028 pregnant women. The women completed the Edinburgh depression questionnaire at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and at 8 weeks and 8 months postpartum.

The researchers found that depression scores were higher at 32 weeks of pregnancy than at 8 weeks postpartum. Nearly 14% of women had probable depression at 32 weeks of pregnancy compared with only 9.1% of women at 8 weeks postpartum and 1.6% of women at all four assessment periods. In addition, more women had scores above the threshold for probable depression during pregnancy than after pregnancy.

"Although caution is needed when equating self-report data with a clinical diagnosis of depression, our data suggest that childbirth is less likely than the events of pregnancy to be followed by depression in women who are not depressed, and more likely to be followed by improvement in women who are depressed," the authors state.

"The consequences of antenatal depression are not well understood," the investigators point out. "Psychopathology during pregnancy may have an important effect on the uterine environment, and research is urgently needed into the consequences for the child of antenatal depression," they add. "It is also important to study the potential benefits of screening for, and treating, depression during pregnancy."

BMJ 2001;323:257-260.