title: Screening for depression and anxiety disorders from pregnancy to postpartum with the EPDS and STAI.
abstract: The 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.
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Minho (Portugal).
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tendais
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Minho (Portugal).
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Minho (Portugal).
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conde
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Minho (Portugal).
authors.forename: Bárbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Figueiredo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000175:diagnosis; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*