Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Pregnancy And Depression

Question:
Took it myself, because I thought it was funny that a lot of the answers are pregnancy symptoms (fatigue, weight gain, difficulty concentrating, having to exert major effort to do simple things, etc.)... I came out moderately to severely depressed! Which is funny, because I have been depressed, and I'm reasonably certain that I'm not now. This leads to my question - if so many pregnancy symptoms are so similar to depression, how do they accurately diagnose depression during pregnancy? Could post-partum depression actually start during pregnancy, and go undiagnosed because so many of the symptoms are the same as being hugely pregnant? Or, perhaps I am depressed? Could I talk you other third trimester gals into taking it, too, and reporting back whether you're also moderately to severely depressed?

Answer:
Well, I just took it and scored mild to moderate (I'm more of a post-trimester gal, myself). This particular test isn't going to work well for pregnant women, IMO, and REALLY doesn't work for new moms - there are only 18 questions, and of them about 8 (nearly half) apply as expected features of new motherhood (and late pregnancy), and are coincidentally symptoms of depression: doing things slowly, trouble concentrating on reading (!), difficulty making decisions (maybe this one?), losing interest in aspects of life that used to be important (a hallmark of new motherhood is being preoccupied with the baby and forgetting about once important interests), agitation/restlessness (esp. late pregnancy), fatigue (!), taking great effort to do simple things (I tidied the apartment and did laundry today! YAY!), disturbed sleep (!!!), weight gain and loss (!!!). Actually, that's 9 items. Half the test. Now, extract those items and answer the remaining questions, and I think you'd get a much more accurate picture of how depressed you might be. I imagine any therapist/doctor examining a potentially depressed pregnant woman or new mom would discount the markers I listed above, or at least take them very much with a grain of salt, since they're coincidentally features of depression, but are normal features of early motherhood. Ramble ramble ramble - speaking of early motherhood! I'm tired and distracted, but I certainly don't feel like a failure/think about killing myself/fail to take pleasure in good things that happen to me, etc. I came out as no depression likely (score of 1 lol) not bad since I have a 3 year old and a 4 month old. I think I am the least depressed I have ever been in my life. Well I scored moderately to severe and my kids are 12, 10 and 8. It's been too busy and hot to sleep. I've just started a full-time job at home and I am crazed and can't think straight. If school doesn't hurry up and get out, I'm going to go nuts. I call it life, not depression. I have a friend who believes her PND actually started as antenatal depression. It wouldn't surprise me at all that the seeds of it are there before delivery, because from what I've seen of it, it's a lot to do with feeling (irrationally) guilty, and I don't see why that would be merely a post-partum symptom. I'm in my third trimester and took the test. When I answered the questions I was confident it would come out as not in the least depressed, but I got the same result as you. I don't know about you but for me that's ridiculous. Yes I am tired, have interrupted sleep and sometimes do things more slowly - but as everyone has pointed out, that's part of being pregnant. And in fact even my answers to those questions were mild - all the others were wildly positive, so I'd seriously question the validity of that quiz.