Screening and Assessment

Health visitors often talk to mums about their mood when the baby is 6 or 8 weeks old, and might use an Edinburgh Scale (EPDS) as a starting point or a basis for discussion.

There are some problems using EPDS as a screening tool that are common with any type of screening tool for PND:

• It doesn’t necessarily pick up all symptoms, and it’s less good if you are suffering from anxiety, but it is recognised as being a useful guide to how you are feeling at the time.
• The other difficulty with postnatal depression is that some days you might feel alright while other days are especially difficult.

The above can result in what are commonly called “False Positive” or “False Negative” results where the screening tool does not work. That is why EPDS is normally completed with the help of a trained health care professional who can provide a clinical diagnosis of Anxiety, Depression or PTSD for which they may use detailed questionnaires or assessment tools.

We hope that putting these screening tools online will help you to explore your feelings and consider whether you need to seek additional help and support. If you think you might be suffering the assessment tools will give you a score and the results are explained with recommendations as what you should do next.