# Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) Technology · id `maternal:edinburgh-postnatal-depression-scale` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `c7fb95f1d15a7d13` (public) > General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here. The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations. Browse, life stage: Pregnancy; Postpartum Browse, care area: Mental health ## In plain language A 10-question form that a mother fills in about her mood, first described in 1987, to help find postnatal depression in the community. It takes about 5 minutes and is scored in a simple way. It is a screening tool and does not make a diagnosis. ## Technical summary Developed as a 10-item self-report scale and validated on 84 mothers against Research Diagnostic Criteria from a standardised psychiatric interview; the original abstract reports satisfactory sensitivity and specificity and sensitivity to change over time, without numbers (see the claim on this page). The registry record for the zuranolone trial SKYLARK uses the EPDS as a secondary outcome. No cut-off score is stated in this atlas because the abstract read gives none. ## Claims, with the population each applies to ## Context: Mothers in the 1987 validation study of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale Recipient: Maternal; Population: A validation study carried out on 84 mothers, using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for depressive illness obtained from Goldberg's Standardised Psychiatric Interview. The scale was developed to screen for postnatal depression in the community.; Care setting: Community (abstract).; Geography: Not stated in the abstract.; Life stage: Postnatal period; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: The abstract says the scale was sensitive to change in the severity of depression over time; it gives no follow-up length. ### The 1987 paper that introduced the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) describes a 10-item self-report scale to screen for postnatal depression in the community. It was validated on 84 mothers against Research Diagnostic Criteria from a standardised psychiatric interview, and the authors found satisfactory sensitivity and specificity and sensitivity to change in the severity of depression over time. The scale can be completed in about 5 minutes and has a simple method of scoring. - Category: Description - Evidence stage: Observational - Certainty: Certainty not assessed - Applies to: Recipient: Maternal; Population: A validation study carried out on 84 mothers, using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for depressive illness obtained from Goldberg's Standardised Psychiatric Interview. The scale was developed to screen for postnatal depression in the community.; Care setting: Community (abstract).; Geography: Not stated in the abstract.; Life stage: Postnatal period; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: The abstract says the scale was sensitive to change in the severity of depression over time; it gives no follow-up length. - Limitations: The abstract gives no sensitivity, specificity, cut-off score or confidence interval, so the atlas gives none; a score cut-off is not stated here. One validation study of 84 mothers in 1987 does not show how the scale performs in other languages, populations or in pregnancy. The scale is a screening questionnaire; it does not make a diagnosis. Only the PubMed abstract was read. - Last checked: 2026-10-14 - Sources: 1. Supports: Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched.) Locator: Abstract, sentence 1. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:18:21Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: cbfeea4e2fb61d3e8b217b6235cfc440307132d681eaa5b2b13b74f4f3f762f5. How it applies: What the scale is. 2. Supports: Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched.) Locator: Abstract, sentence 2, fragment 1 of 2. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:18:21Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: cbfeea4e2fb61d3e8b217b6235cfc440307132d681eaa5b2b13b74f4f3f762f5. How it applies: Validation sample, part 1. 3. Supports: Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched.) Locator: Abstract, sentence 2, fragment 2 of 2. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:18:21Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: cbfeea4e2fb61d3e8b217b6235cfc440307132d681eaa5b2b13b74f4f3f762f5. How it applies: Validation reference, part 2. 4. Supports: Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched.) Locator: Abstract, sentence 3. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:18:21Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: cbfeea4e2fb61d3e8b217b6235cfc440307132d681eaa5b2b13b74f4f3f762f5. How it applies: Sensitivity and specificity described as satisfactory. 5. Supports: Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched.) Locator: Abstract, sentence 4. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:18:21Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: cbfeea4e2fb61d3e8b217b6235cfc440307132d681eaa5b2b13b74f4f3f762f5. How it applies: Time to complete and scoring. ## Connected pages - A questionnaire used in screening: Screening for depression in pregnancy and after birth (`maternal:perinatal-depression-screening`) - Filed under this front: Screening and tests (`maternal:front-screening-and-tests`) ## Provenance Content hash: 74b9146505e10059f9ca2f30d199ab5be06d0d311e77fcb9b4189b756b28f338 Last substantive edit: 2026-10-14 Evidence last checked: 2026-10-14