ArticleBMC psychology2021
Can the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale-3A be used to screen for anxiety?
Article in BMC psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of psychosocial screening tools for identification of postpartum mental health status beyond depressive symptoms.Midwifery · 2025Pooled it
- Detection of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Symptoms in Patients Presenting in a Specialty Fetal Care Center During Pregnancy.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2026Article
- Turkish Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale-Revised in Three Independent Gestational Groups.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations of Allopregnanolone and Related Steroid Hormones with Prenatal Psychosocial Distress in the Healthy Start Cohort.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Who is screened for perinatal mental health? findings from an academic health system in California.Archives of women's mental health · 2026Article
- Immediate postpartum depressive symptoms and future psychiatric diagnoses: A predictive analysis using the EPDS.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Prevalence, risk and protective factors of postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms in the Allada district, Benin.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Association of depressive and/or pregnancy-related anxiety symptoms in pregnancy with maternal and neonatal biologic aging.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Prenatal mental health and postpartum care: an analysis of medical records in a California health system.American journal of obstetrics & gynecology MFM · 2026Article
- AI-driven high-risk pregnancy prediction: balancing early detection, anxiety, and discrimination in digital public health.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Maternal bonding difficulties and postpartum depression in pediatric clinical practice: a longitudinal study in a Japanese cohort.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Postpartum doula care and symptoms of depression and anxiety among BIPOC and Latina birthing parents: a longitudinal pilot intervention study.Frontiers in global women's health · 2026Article
- Improving inpatient postpartum depression screening: results from a quality improvement initiative.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Article
- Validating the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 in Community Mothers and Fathers Across the Infant's First Year.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques for pre-symptomatic identification of genetic diseases in newborns.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Feasibility of a Mobile App-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Perinatal Skills Program: Protocol for Nonrandomized Pilot Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Adiponectin and Glucocorticoids Modulate Risk for Preterm Birth: The Healthy Start Study.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
- Factor structure and longitudinal measurement invariance of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during the whole perinatal period: a multicenter cohort study in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Psychometric evaluation of the Japanese Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for screening postpartum anxiety.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Perinatal mental health in Singapore-prevalence, knowledge, attitudes, and practices.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnxiety in the ante- and postnatal period is prevalent, often co-occurs with depression, and can have adverse consequences for the infant. Therefore, perinatal mental health screening programs should not only focus on depression but also on detecting anxiety. However, in many already implemented perinatal screening programs, adding extra screening instruments is not feasible. We examine the utility of a subscale of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) consisting of items 3, 4, and 5 (EPDS-3A) for detecting anxiety in new mothers.
methodsWe used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the presence of the EPDS-3A found in a previous study (n = 320) where exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used. For the CFA we used a sample of new mothers (n = 442) with children aged 2-11 months recruited from the same population from which mothers for the previous study was recruited. Three models were tested and compared. Receiver operating characteristics of the EPDS-3A were investigated in relation to anxiety caseness status on the combined sample (N = 762). Sample weighing was used to match the dataset to the target population. Cross tabulation was used to investigate the proportion of anxiety cases identified by the EPDS-3A above those identified with the total EPDS.
resultsThe presence of the EPDS-3A was confirmed. An EFA-driven, two-dimensional 7-item model showed the best data fit with one factor representing the anxiety subscale consisting of items 3, 4, and 5. An EPDS-3A score of ≥ 5 was the most optimal for identifying cases of anxiety (sensitivity: 70.9; specificity: 92.2; AUC: 0.926). Further, we found that the EPDS-3A identifies an additional 2.5% of anxiety cases that would not have been identified with the total EPDS.
conclusionsThe EPDS-3A can be used as a time-efficient screening for possible anxiety in ante- and postnatal mothers. However, adding the EPDS-3A to routine screening with the total EPDS does not lead to a substantial increase in the number of women identified. In line with previous studies, this study confirms that the EPDS identifies anxiety in addition to depression. Therefore, assessment and treatment adjusted to the specific emotional difficulties is imperative.
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