Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Papers

Cohort study of depressed mood during pregnancy and after childbirth

BMJ 2001; 323 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7307.257 (Published 04 August 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;323:257

Rapid Response:

Higher levels of depressed mood in pregnancy is not news

Editor

Evans et al's findings that symptoms of depression were higher during
pregnancy than in the postpartum period is not new(1). This has already
been observed using various self-report symptom measures although in much
smaller cohorts(2)(3). When these and other studies (4) employed
standardised interviews and recognised diagnostic critieria they found the
rates of depressive disorder in pregnancy and after delivery to be
similar.

However, I hope the publicity generated by this paper will persuade
health providers to end the current patchy and inadquate service provision
for pregnant and postpartum women who experience mental disorders.

1.Evans J,Heron J, Francomb H, Oke S, Golding J BMJ 2001;323:257-262

2.Gotlib IH, Whiffen VE, Mount JH, et al Prevalence rates and demographic
characteristics associated with depression in pregnancy and the
postpartum. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1989;57:269-274

3.O'Hara MW, Zekowski EM, Phipps LH, Wright EJ. Controlled prospective
study of postpartum mood disorders: comparison of childbearing and
nonchildbearing women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1990;99:3-15

4.Cooper P, Cambpell E, Day A, Kennerley H, Bond A. Non-psychotic
psychiatric disorder after childbirth: a prospective study of prevalence,
incidence, course and nature. British Journal of Psychiatry 1988;152:799-
806

Competing interests: No competing interests

03 August 2001
Carol Henshaw
Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry
School of Postgraduate Medicine, Keele University