Depression during pregnancy in the Brazilian public health care system

• Autor(a) principal: Silva,Ricardo Azevedo da
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Jansen,Karen, Souza,Luciano Dias de Mattos, Moraes,Inácia Gomes da Silva, Tomasi,Elaine, Silva,Giovanna Del Grande da, Dias,Michelle de Souza, Pinheiro,Ricardo Tavares
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry (São Paulo. 1999. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462010000200008
• topic: Depression; Pregnancy; Health systems; Probability; Public health

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of depression and correlate clinical and demographic characteristics in pregnant women assisted by the public health system in the city of Pelotas, RS, Brazil. METHOD: We performed a cross-sectional study focused on pregnant women assisted by the public health service. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to screen for depression. RESULTS: In a sample of 1,264 pregnant women aged 12-46 years, 21.1% (n = 255) presented a depressive episode during pregnancy. The presence of depression was associated with older age, lower education, lack of a cohabiting partner, not being primiparous, planned pregnancy, abortion thoughts, psychological or psychiatric treatment, smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and stressful events. CONCLUSION: Pregnant women assisted by the Brazilian public health system presented a high prevalence of depression. Psychiatric history, lack of support, and stressful events increase the probability of antenatal depression.