Are you experiencing baby blues or perinatal depression? Understanding the difference is crucial during the perinatal period, which spans from the start of pregnancy to a year after childbirth. Perinatal depression, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th edition, refers to a major depressive episode that occurs during pregnancy or within 4 weeks after delivery.
Detecting perinatal depression can be challenging, as common symptoms experienced during pregnancy and motherhood, such as fatigue, changes in appetite, and sleep patterns, can overlap with depressive symptoms. This overlap often leads to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of perinatal depression, with a significant number of women going untreated.
Recent guidelines have placed the responsibility of perinatal depression screening on healthcare professionals. However, a review conducted by Yang et al. aimed to evaluate existing recommendations and examine any discrepancies between guidelines and current research or clinical practice.
It is important to examine the gap between perinatal depression screening guidelines and what we’re actually doing in practice.
Methods
The review protocol was pre-registered and conducted according to the PRISMA checklist. Two searches were carried out to identify relevant studies in English and Chinese from 2010 to 2021.
The review searched various databases for observational studies relating to perinatal depression, screening, and prevalence using validated measures. Guidelines from academic organizations were also reviewed to identify recommendations related to perinatal depression screening.
After screening and assessing the eligibility of the studies, the review identified discrepancies between guidelines and implementation in terms of routine screening, referrals, and timing/frequency of screenings.
Despite guidelines recommending routine screening for perinatal depression, just under 9% of the studies included in this review showed evidence of this happening.
