title: [Clinical study on postpartum depression and its related factors].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The prevalence rate, related factors and clinical characteristics of postpartum depression were studied in order to promote obstetrician's understanding of the disease, and resort to preventive and therapeutic measure earlier.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and ten puerpera were selected from September to November 1998 for mood study by self-rating depression scale, self-rating anxiety scale, Hamilton depression scale, and self-made questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence rate of postpartum depression was 37.14% (78/210), of which, 91.03% (71/78) was mild, and 8.97% (7/78) moderate. In addition, 10.48% (22/210) of women got anxiety after delivery. The symptoms, including decreased activity, difficulty in thinking, problems in decision-making, difficulty in doing things, feeling of uselessness and hopelessness were chief complaints of postpartum depression patients. Bad social behavior and mood controlling, inadequate psychological preparation for delivery, lack of knowledge of delivery were closely correlated to the onset of postpartum depression, which are the risk factors of postpartum depression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Postpartum depression is a spiritual and psychological obstacle with relatively high prevalence rate. Bad social psychological factors can bring out and aggravate postpartum depression. It is important to carry out prenatal psychological care and to propagate the knowledge of delivery, to find out and cure of postpartum depression as soon as possible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Affiliated Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, ZheJiang University, Hangzhou 310006, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shangguan
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence