The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a 10-item self-rating instrument for depression in a woman who has recently been pregnant. It was developed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
The instrument consists of 10 questions asking about mood over the past 7 days.
Questions:
(1) laugh
(2) anticipation
(3) self-blame
(4) anxiety
(5) panicky
(6) feeling overwhelmed
(7) difficulty sleeping
(8) feeling sad
(9) crying
(10) thoughts of self-harm
Responses are scored from 0 (normal) to 3 (depressed)
score =
= SUM(points for all 10 items)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 30
• The higher the score, the more severe the depressive symptoms.
• A threshold score of 12/13 identified all of the patients with definite major depression and most the patients with probable major depression. This threshold had false negatives for minor depression and false positives for normal women.
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