Abstract

Postpartum depression is one of the complications after birth which may continue throughout years, and potentially may lead to psychosis. Hence, it is very important to prevent, determine, and evaluate woman’s psychiatric reactions during postpartum period using specific scales. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychological scales used in studies evaluating depression during postpartum period. Among 69 papers obtained from PubMed and Google Academic database, 31 papers excluded after reviewing their irrelevance to the subject of the papers. In total 15 papers in the Turkish language, 23 papers in the English language published between 2010-2016 were reviewed. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (n=32), the Beck Depression Inventory (n=4), the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (n=2), the Hamilton Depression Inventory (n=1), the Fear of Childbirth and Postpartum Period Questionnaire (n=1), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Inventory (n=2), the Spielberger Trait- State Anxiety Inventory (n=3), the Multimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (n=7) and the Maternal Attachment Inventory (n=2) were used in studies. The aim of these researches was the evaluation of the prevalence and the risk factors for postpartum depression and anxiety. In Turkey, the prevalence of postpartum depression is ranged from 15.4% to 51.3%. Although there are various scales in order to assess postpartum depression, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is the most commonly used.