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Mental Health: postnatal depression and puerperal psychosis


Post-natal depression (PND) is regarded as any non-psychotic depressive illness of mild to moderate severity occurring during the first postnatal year. It is important not to confuse PND with “baby blues” a term used to describe bouts of weepiness many women experience in the immediate postnatal period.

In diagnosing depression in the post natal period there is a risk that normal emotional changes may be mistaken for depression or may mask depressive symptoms. Increasingly screening for PND is being carried out across all NHS Boards in Scotland using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression and Screening Tool, although presently data is not collected on a Scotland-wide basis.

Currently, it is estimated that for every 1000 live births, 100-150 women will suffer a depressive illness and one or two women will develop a puerperal psychosis (SIGN: Postnatal depression and puerperal psychosis guideline, 2002). Women who had given birth in Scotland in 2002 were also found to have a higher rate of depression and anxiety (27%) compared with women who had not given birth (19%) (QISPDF Button(769kb), 2004)