Study of prevalence of postpartum depression among women

Abstract

Introduction: Postpartum Depression (PPD) refers to non-psychotic depressive episodes that begin in or extend into the postpartum period. According to The American Psychiatric Association (APA) postpartum depression is defined as the occurrence of a Major Depressive Episode (MDE) within 4 weeks after delivery. Objectives of our study: To find out the prevalence of PPD among women aged 20-40 years in our population. Methodology: Data were collected using a valid Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The internal reliability of the scale was 0.84 (Cronbach's alpha). The EPDS has 10 questions, and the scoring is as the following: a score less than eight points shows that depression is unlikely, a score of nine to 11 considered depression possible, a 12-13 score interprets fairly high possibility of depression, +13 scores and higher show positive results, and the cutoff point is 13+.Results: We included a total of 310 women based on the inclusion criteria and diagnostic criteria of PPD, in the age group of 20-40 years. The mean age was found to be 28.5±4.5 years. We used Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale for the diagnosis of PPD.