title: [Study of the prevalence of postpartum depression among 213 Tunisian parturients].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of the depression in postpartum in a population of Tunisian parturients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study, in two stages: first week then between sixth and tenth week of the postpartum. The study was done at CHU Hédi Chaker in Sfax, Tunisia. For tracking postpartum depression, we used the Arab version of Edinburgh Postnatal Scale Depression (EPDS). An epidemiologic questionnaire was used to collect the sociodemographic and clinical data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In T(1), 213 women were examined. In T(2), 136 were reexamined (63, 8% of the initial population). In the first stage, the prevalence of the intense postpartum blues, according to EPDS, was 19,2%. In the second stage, the prevalence of the postpartum depression was 13, 2%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The postpartum depressions are frequent among Tunisian parturients. The difference in the rates of prevalence between the two stages of evaluation was noted in other studies. This leads us to think that the relatively high rate in the first stage would be contaminated by an intense postpartum blues. However, a high rate persists at the sixth to tenth week, indicating the importance of tracking postpartum depression. This became possible by using EPDS, available in an Arab version and which should be generalized for the new mothers. This detection should be done early in postpartum or else in the later postnatal consultations. This allows an adequate treatment for the mothers, for the mother-newborn relationship and, later, for the psychological equilibrium of the child.
authors.affiliation: Service de psychiatrie A, CHU Hédi-Chaker, Sfax, Tunisia. masmoudijawaher@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Masmoudi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tabelsi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Charfeddine
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ben Ayed
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guermazzi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jaoua
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology