Structure of depressive symptoms in pregnancy and the postpartum period.
BACKGROUND
The present study investigated the structure of depressive symptoms in the perinatal period.


METHODS
The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was administered to a total of 1329 women in early, middle and late pregnancy and 5 days, 1 month, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months after the delivery.


RESULTS
A number of somatic items and the suicidal ideation item of the SDS made low contributions to the evaluation of the severity of depression, and as a consequence these were excluded in the principal component analysis. Three factors were interpretable as "Cognitive", "Affective insomnia" and "Attentional" emerged at all eight assessment points. The goodness-of-fit index (GFI) generated by confirmatory factor analyses (LISREL 7.20) proved sufficiently high on all eight occasions.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study investigated only one self-rating scale and the sample comprised Japanese mothers only.


CONCLUSIONS
The three-factor model of the SDS in the perinatal period was derived from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. It is noteworthy that the same three-factor structure emerged at all eight collection points in the present study.
National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan. sugawara@ncnp-k.go.jp
M
M
Sugawara
S
S
Sakamoto
T
T
Kitamura
M A
MA
Toda
S
S
Shima
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors