Paper Title
Screening for Postpartum Depression Using Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale

Abstract
Postpartum depression, a non psychotic, self-limiting, depressive episode of mild to moderate severity, is a major public health problem having a significant impact on the mother, the family, her partner, mother-infant interaction and on the long term emotional and cognitive development of the baby. A World Health Organization (WHO) report, predicting disease patterns for developing countries in 2020, also warned of the increasing impact of developing countries suggests that PPD is common and has significant adverse effects both on the mother’s and the child’s health and development. It has been shown that most cases of PPD can be diagnosed and managed by suitably trained nurse or clinicians. Objectives: 1. To determine the proportion of postpartum depression. 2. To assess the factors influencing postpartum depression. Materials and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study. Ethical committee approval was obtained before commencement of the study. Post natal mothers of the age range of 18 to 35 years who were in the first week of their post natal period admitted in the tertiary care hospital attached to a medical college in coastal Karnataka, India were enrolled as study participants through non probability sampling. A 10 item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used to screen for postpartum depression. The total score is calculated by adding together the scores for each of the 10 items. Cut-off score of ≥13 was used to diagnose postpartum depression. SPSS Version 16.0 was used to enter and analyse the data. Results: Majority of the post natal mothers were in the age group of 26 to 30 years (n=81,46.0%) with the parity score of 2 or more (n=164,93.2%). Proportion of postpartum depression was found to be 15.9% (n=28). Postpartum depression was found to be significantly associated (P value <0.05) with parity and the number of living children of the participants. Other factors such as age, occupation, family type, family income, religion and sex of the child were not found to be statistically associated. Conclusion: Proportion of postpartum depression was found to be 15.9% in the present study. Keywords: Postpartum depression, EPDS, screening