Temperament, Post-Partum Depression, Hopelessness, and Suicide Risk Among Women Soon After Delivering

The aim of the authors in this study was to assess the prevalence of postpartum depression and evaluate the association of affective temperaments with emotional disorders in a sample of 92 pregnant women consecutively admitted for delivery between March and December 2009. In the first few days postpartum, women completed the Suicidal History Self-rating Screening Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Autoquestionnaire, and the Gotland Male Depression Scale. Fifty percent of the women reported an Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score of 9 or higher, and 23% a score of 13 or higher. Women with a dysphoric-dysregulated temperament had higher mean scores on the Beck Hopelessness Scale (p < 0.05), the Gotland Male Depression Scale (p < 0.001), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (p < 0.001), and the Suicidal History Self-Rating Screening Scale (p < 0.01) than other women after adjusting for covariates. Multiple logistic regression analysis with the temperament groups as the dependent variable indicated that only the Gotland Male Depression Scale was significantly associated with temperament when controlling for the presence of other variables. Women with a dysphoric-dysregulated temperament were 1.23 times as likely to have higher depressive symptom scores. Future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of psychiatric screening programs in the postpartum period as well as factors associated with depression and suicidality during the same period.