DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i08.004

Pages: 2966-2970

Depression significantly contributes to the global disease burden. It is important to identify maternal depression in India since death rates due to suicide, a large proportion of which occur in women, are among the highest in the world here. Post partum depression has also been shown to have negative effects on the overall development of the infant. There is scarcity of data and no standardised objective method, to assess depressive symptoms, in our local context. To assess the severity of depressive symptoms in mothers, 6-8 weeks after delivery and to identify risk factors leading to these depressive symptoms. The cross-sectional study was planned at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi and Faridabad. The study universe included women visiting the immunisation centre. The inclusion criterion was women who had delivered a live child 6-8 weeks before the interview. The exclusion criteria were those coming before 6 weeks post partum, women who had been previously diagnosed with PPD, and those whose children had died at birth or in the period before being interviewed. The sampling technique used was non probability sampling and the sample size was N= 106. The study tools used were the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Beck’s Depression Inventory (Hindi) and a Structured Proforma. The study period was from April’ 2016 to June’ 2017. According to Beck’s Depressive Inventory II, 45% of the ladies interviewed had depressive symptoms ranging from mild to very severe. Mild depression (score of 11-16) was seen in 19.8 %, borderline (score of 17-20) in 8.4 %, moderate (score 21-30) in 9.4 % and severe (score 31-40) in 5.7 % and very severe (score > 40) in 1.9 %. Suicidal ideation was present in 19.8% of those interviewed (Q 10 EPDS). Lower age group, low socioeconomic status, poor role in decision making and poor relationship with husband were significantly associated with development of depressive symptoms in the post-partum period. Depressive symptoms are found to occu