Assessment of postpartum depressive symptoms: the importance of somatic symptoms and irritability

J Austin Williamson; Michael W O'Hara; Scott Stuart; Kimberly J Hart; David Watson

doi:10.1177/1073191114544357

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Assessment of postpartum depressive symptoms: the importance of somatic symptoms and irritability

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Assessment of postpartum depressive symptoms: the importance of somatic symptoms and irritability

J Austin Williamson, Michael W O'Hara, Scott Stuart, Kimberly J Hart and David Watson

Assessment (Odessa, Fla.), Vol.22(3), pp.309-318

06/2015

DOI: 10.1177/1073191114544357

PMID: 25059681

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Abstract

Assessing postpartum depressive symptoms is complicated by the fact that irritability, fatigue, insomnia, and appetite disruptions are also related to normative aspects of the childbearing process. We used multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to compare symptoms in 271 postpartum women with those of 820 non-postpartum women. We found that (a) irritability, insomnia, fatigue, and appetite loss were substantially associated with depressed mood among postpartum women whereas increased appetite was not; (b) irritability, insomnia, fatigue, and appetite changes were as strongly related to depression among postpartum women as they were among non-postpartum women; and (c) after controlling for overall depressed mood, postpartum women reported more irritability, insomnia, and appetite loss than the non-postpartum women. Irritability, fatigue, insomnia, and appetite loss are valid indicators and should be used to measure postpartum depressive symptoms. However, scores on these symptoms should be adjusted downward to account for their higher baseline rates in the postpartum population.

Reproducibility of Results

Depression, Postpartum - psychology

Irritable Mood

Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data

Somatoform Disorders - psychology

Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data

Humans

Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis

Adult

Depression, Postpartum - diagnosis

Female

Reference Values

Details

Title: Subtitle: Assessment of postpartum depressive symptoms: the importance of somatic symptoms and irritability
Creators: J Austin Williamson - University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA j-williamson@uiowa.edu
Michael W O'Hara - University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Scott Stuart - University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Kimberly J Hart - University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, IL, USA
David Watson - University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Assessment (Odessa, Fla.), Vol.22(3), pp.309-318
Publisher: United States
DOI: 10.1177/1073191114544357
PMID: 25059681
ISSN: 1073-1911
eISSN: 1552-3489
Grant note: MH068472 / NIMH NIH HHS MM-0822 / PHS HHS
Language: English
Date published: 06/2015
Academic Unit: Psychiatry; Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Psychological and Brain Sciences
Record Identifier: 9984003470802771

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