• Lori L Altshuler, Lee S Cohen, Allison F Vitonis, Stephen V Faraone, Bernard L Harlow, Rita Suri, Richard Frieder, and Zachary N Stowe.
• Mood Disorders Research Program, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, PO Box 957057, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7057, USA. laltshuler@mednet.ucla.edu
• Arch Womens Ment Health. 2008 Sep 1;11(4):277-85.

AbstractDepression in pregnancy can be underdiagnosed as a consequence of the symptoms being misattributed to "normal pregnancy." There are currently no validated clinician-rated scales that assess for depression specifically during pregnancy. We sought to develop a brief, convenient screening tool to identify depression in pregnant women in the community setting. Prospective mood data using the 28-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were collected monthly in 196 pregnant women with a history of a major depressive disorder. These data were analyzed to delineate those HDRS items associated (elevated) with normal pregnancy vs. those indicative of a pregnant woman meeting diagnostic criteria for a major depressive episode. Endorsement of symptoms on seven items of the HDRS were highly predictive of having a major depressive episode during pregnancy. We present a well-validated, brief scale to screen pregnant women for clinical depression. Whether this study will generalize to women who do not have a history of major depression remains to be studied.

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