SynthesisGeneral hospital psychiatry
Screening for perinatal depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale (PHQ-9): A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in General hospital psychiatry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Perinatal Mood, Anxiety, and Related Disorders: Guide de pratique 2024 du Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments pour le traitement des troubles de l'humeur, des troubles anxieux et des troubles connexes périnatals.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2025Guideline
- Identification of depression and anxiety during pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of test accuracy.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2024Pooled it
- Tools for screening maternal mental health conditions in primary care settings in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- App-based interventions for the prevention of postpartum depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Pooled it
- Perinatal depression screening: a systematic review of recommendations from member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Archives of women's mental health · 2022Pooled it
- Practical resources for effective postpartum parenting (PREPP): a randomized controlled trial of a novel parent-infant dyadic intervention to reduce symptoms of postpartum depression.American journal of obstetrics & gynecology MFM · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Article
- Postpartum depression in women during war: from acute crisis to prolonged conflict.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Suicidal ideation across pregnancy and the postpartum: Trajectories and assessment with commonly used screening tools.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Article
- Unmasking Potential Impacts of Parent and Coparent ADHD on Mental Health in the First Year Postpartum.Journal of attention disorders · 2026Article
- Cultural adaptation, validity and reliability of the Marathi language version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to screen depression in rural Maharashtra, India.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Examining the association between prenatal inflammation and postpartum depression in a large, prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Depressive symptom profiles across pregnant, postpartum, and nonperipartum women: measurement invariance and differential item functioning analyses of 2005-2021 NHANES data.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Expanded adverse childhood experiences and postpartum mental health among an under-resourced sample of Spanish- and English-speaking mothers referred for community-based mental health services during pregnancy.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Depression and anxiety among women with unwanted pregnancies seeking termination.Turkish journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2026Article
- Symptoms of antenatal depression and associated factors: a multicenter cross-sectional analysis at primary care clinics in Mexico.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Factors associated with postpartum depression symptoms following antepartum hospitalization.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPerinatal depression (PND) is a prevalent and disabling problem both during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The legacy screening measure has been the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). This systematic review examines the validity of the PHQ-9 as a screener for PND.
methodsThe following databases were searched from January 2001 (when the PHQ-9 was first published) through June 2020: MEDLINE, Embase, and PsychInfo. Studies that compared the PHQ-9 to a criterion standard psychiatric interview were used to determine the operating characteristics of sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC). Studies comparing the PHQ-9 to the EPDS and other depression scales evaluated convergent validity.
resultsA total of 35 articles were eligible for criterion (n = 10) or convergent (n = 25) validity. Meta-analysis of the 7 criterion validity studies using the standard PHQ-9 cut point ≥10 showed a pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC of 0.84, 0.81 and 0.89, respectively. Operating characteristics of the PHQ-9 and EPDS were nearly identical in head-to-head comparison studies. The median correlation between the PHQ-9 and EPDS was 0.59, and categorical agreement was moderate.
conclusionsThe PHQ-9 appears to be a viable option for perinatal depression screening with operating characteristics similar to the legacy EPDS.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.