Cited by 153Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMaternal and Neonatal Healthcare

Screening for perinatal depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale (PHQ-9): A systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access
Wang, Larry, Kroenke, Kurt, Stump, Timothy E., Monahan, Patrick O.·2021·General Hospital Psychiatry

Abstract

Objectives Perinatal depression (PND) is a prevalent and disabling problem both during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The legacy screening measure has been the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). This systematic review examines the validity of the PHQ-9 as a screener for PND.Methods The following databases were searched from January 2001 (when the PHQ-9 was first published) through June 2020: MEDLINE, Embase, and PsychInfo. Studies that compared the PHQ-9 to a criterion standard psychiatric interview were used to determine the operating characteristics of sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC). Studies comparing the PHQ-9 to the EPDS and other depression scales evaluated convergent validity.Results A total of 35 articles were eligible for criterion (n = 10) or convergent (n = 25) validity. Meta-analysis of the 7 criterion validity studies using the standard PHQ-9 cut point ≥10 showed a pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC of 0.84, 0.81 and 0.89, respectively. Operating characteristics of the PHQ-9 and EPDS were nearly identical in head-to-head comparison studies. The median correlation between the PHQ-9 and EPDS was 0.59, and categorical agreement was moderate.Conclusions The PHQ-9 appears to be a viable option for perinatal depression screening with operating characteristics similar to the legacy EPDS.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.12.007

Cites

99 of 99 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 101 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. [70]Buttner MM, Stuart S and O’Hara MW. Moving beyond the EPDS: The association between postpartum depressive symptoms and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Archives of Women’s Mental Health 2011; 14: S62.
  2. [71]Mendes AV, Martín-Santos R, Crippa JAS and Loureiro SR. A case-control study of school age children of depressed mothers. Archives of Women’s Mental Health 2011; 14: S158.
  3. [80]Seino H, Kokai M and Matsunaga H. Effectiveness of comprehensive interprofessional intervention program (CIIP) for pregnant women with psychiatric disorders during perinatal period. Archives of Women’s Mental Health 2015; 18: 331.
  4. [88]Owora AH, Carabin H, Reese J and Garwe T. Summary diagnostic validity of commonly used maternal major depression disorder case finding instruments in the United States: A meta-analysis. J Affect Disord 2016; 205: 335– 343. 27566453 PMC5568628
  5. [105]Stewart DE, Vigod S. Postpartum depression. N Engl J Med 2016; 375: 2177– 86. 27959754

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Wang, L., Kroenke, K., Stump, T. E., & Monahan, P. O.
Affiliations
  • Indiana University School of Medicine (US)
  • Regenstrief Institute (US)
  • Indiana University Indianapolis (US)
Corresponding author
Kroenke, Kurt
Venue
General Hospital Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-01
Volume
68
Pages
74-82
ISSN
0163-8343 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3115587826
Cited by
153
References
101
Citations by year
2026: 37 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 7
FWCI
2.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • General Hospital Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • IUScholarWorks (Indiana University) (submittedVersion)
  • Purdue University Indianapolis (Indiana University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR002529)
  • Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute
  • National Institutes of Health
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare
Keywords
perinatal depression, PHQ-9, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, depression screening, screening validity, sensitivity and specificity, convergent validity, postpartum depression, pregnancy
MeSH terms
Patient Health Questionnaire, Depression, Female, Humans, Mass Screening, Pregnancy, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Sensitivity and Specificity, Depression, Postpartum

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review