SynthesisMidwifery2025
A systematic review of psychosocial screening tools for identification of postpartum mental health status beyond depressive symptoms.
Synthesis in Midwifery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Closing a critical gap in perinatal mental health: The case for posttraumatic stress disorder screening in obstetric care.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMental health is a key driver of maternal health, particularly in the postpartum period. Psychiatric screening may improve linkage to care and outcomes. Limited evidence exists beyond screening for depression.
objectiveThe goal of this systematic review was to characterize the effects of systematic psychiatric and psychosocial screening on the identification, referral for, and resolution of postpartum mental health symptoms beyond depressive symptoms.
methodsWe identified studies that screened for psychiatric or psychosocial symptoms during pregnancy or postpartum and assessed at least one result of the screening in the postpartum year (e.g., diagnosis, linkage to care, resolution of symptoms). We searched six bibliographic databases on October 25, 2022 and again on December 15, 2023. Results were screened using Covidence. Two reviewers assessed each title/abstract and full text. We conducted a quality assessment using a modified version of the EPHPP (Effective Public Health Practice Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies).
resultsOf 5758 initially eligible studies, we selected 47 which fit our criteria. The most common symptom type was anxiety (25), followed by life course trauma (7), general psychosocial screening (4), and posttraumatic stress disorder (6). Studies primarily assessed diagnostic accuracy, followed by referral to care as outcomes. We deemed most studies of low quality (80.8 %), primarily due to a lack of an unscreened control group for assessing screening effectiveness.
conclusionsPostpartum screening is feasible and accurate for many psychiatric symptoms beyond depression. It is unclear whether it is effective in linking to care or improving postpartum outcomes.
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Registered trials
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.