Postpartum awareness of depression

INTRODUCTION:

Oregon PRAMS is a population-based stratified random sample of Oregon women 3-4 months after birth. Oregon PRAMS-2 reinterviews PRAMS respondents shortly after the child's second birthday.

METHODS:

Oregon PRAMS asks women to report symptoms of depression at 2 times: T1 (PRAMS): during pregnancy T2 (PRAMS): since they baby was born

Oregon PRAMS-2 asks women to report symptoms of depression at 2 times: T3 (PRAMS-2): during the first 12 months of the child's life T4 (PRAMS-2): during the second 12 months of the child's life

1911 women whose children were born in 2004 or 2005 responded to both the PRAMS and the PRAMS-2 surveys. The weighted response rate was 56.6%.

RESULTS:

Respondents reported symptoms of depression: T1 (during pregnancy): 16.6% T2 (0-6 months postpartum): 11.3% T3 (0-12 months postpartum): 30.6% T4 (13-24 months postpartum): 22.1%

DISCUSSION:

Women were almost 3 times as likely to report postpartum depression 2 years postpartum than they were to report postpartum depression 3-4 months postpartum.

Possible reasons for this discrepancy:

1. Slightly different questions; asked about somewhat different time periods.

2. Denial: It is possible that women are less likely to report the symptoms of depression when they are in its throes 3-4 months postpartum. We encourage researchers to explore other longitudinal datasets to seek to explain these findings.

CONCLUSION:

If depressed women are unable to identify depressive symptoms in the first few months after birth then the screening tests that are currently in use may be insufficient; additional detection methods may be necessary.