Screening for Depression and Anxiety Disorders from Pregnancy to Postpartum with the EPDS and STAI

• DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2014.7
• Publication Date: 2014-04-01T05:56:15Z
• Authors: Iva Tendais; Raquel Costa; Ana Conde; Bárbara Figueiredo
• Keywords: Adult; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Depressive Disorder; Psychometrics; Depression; Postpartum Period; Social Sciences; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Postnatal depression; 3. Good health; Depression, Postpartum; Pregnancy Complications; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Pregnancy; Screening; Humans; Female

AbstractThe Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S) are widely used self-report measures that still need to be further validated for the perinatal period. The aim of this study was to examine the screening performance of the EPDS and the STAI-S in detecting depressive and anxiety disorders at pregnancy and postpartum. Women screening positive on EPDS (EPDS ≥ 9) or STAI-S (STAI-S ≥ 45) during pregnancy (n = 90), as well as matched controls (n = 58) were selected from a larger study. At 3 months postpartum, 99 of these women were reassessed. At a second stage, women were administered a clinical interview to establish a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analysis yielded areas under the curve higher than .80 and .70 for EPDS and STAI-S, respectively. EPDS and STAI-S optimal cut-offs were found to be lower at postpartum (EDPS = 7; STAI-S = 34) than during pregnancy (EPDS = 9; STAI-S = 40). EPDS and STAI-S are reasonably valid screening tools during pregnancy and the postpartum.