Postnatal Depression: Prevalence, Mothers' Perspectives, and Treatments
Section snippets
Prevalence of postnatal depression
The combined period prevalence of postnatal depression and minor depressive disorders is estimated to be between 5% and 25% (Affonso et al., 2000, Beck & Gable, 2001a, Beck & Gable, 2001b, Brown & Lumley, 2000, Cryan et al., 2001, Leung et al., 2005, Leung et al., 2005, Yonkers et al., 2001). This is a wide variation in prevalence rates, indicating that there are inherent difficulties in estimating them. An acknowledged difficulty is that of defining postnatal depression. Postnatal depression,
Mothers' perspectives of postnatal depression
In order for health care professionals to provide a person-centered approach to mothers with postnatal depression, it is essential that they acquire a fundamental understanding of the issues that concern mothers during this time. There is a paucity of international research exploring postnatal depression from the perspective of mothers, and that existing is qualitative in nature. The following review spans the period from 1990 to date and illustrates what it is like for mothers living with
Treatment of postnatal depression
Treatments for postnatal depression vary depending on severity and mothers' preferences. Treatments include antidepressants, psychotherapy, support, or a combination of these.
Conclusion
Postnatal depression and general depression are similarly defined within the classifications of the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association. However, research shows that postnatal depression peaks between 6 and 12 weeks postdelivery (Cooper & Murray, 1998, Goodman, 2004, Kumar & Robson, 1984, O'Hara & Swain, 1996), considerably longer than that accounted for within the classifications. Internationally, prevalence rates of postnatal depression vary both within and
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2020, PsychoneuroendocrinologyPrevalence and incidence of postpartum depression among healthy mothers: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2018, Journal of Psychiatric ResearchCitation Excerpt :Stata 11.0 was used to perform random effects meta-regression to investigate the impact of moderator variables on study effect size when significant heterogeneity was detected. Based on previous reviews (Leahy-Warren and McCarthy, 2007; O’Hara and Swain, 1996; Patel et al., 2012) and the clinical expertise of the authors, three study characteristics were assessed as potential moderators: (i) mean age of the mothers, (ii) parity, and (iii) marital status or cohabiting status. Subgroup analyses were performed to investigate the effect of time of assessment and the method of assessment on the prevalence of PPD.
A systematic review and meta-regression of the prevalence and incidence of perinatal depression
2017, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :Additionally, the samples used were not consistently representative of the diversity of each country where studies were conducted (Gavin et al., 2005). A review by Leahy-Warren and McCarthy (2007) found that the past-month prevalence of depression ranged from 4.4% to 73.7% throughout the postnatal period, largely due to differences between included studies in measurement instruments, sampling methods, and sociodemographic variances. As meta-regression or meta-analysis was not performed, summary estimates of prevalence and incidence were not reported and the suggested sources of heterogeneity were not quantified.