PREVENTION OF PERINATAL DEPRESSION BY EPDS DURING THE FIRST PRENATAL CONSULTATION AT MATERNITY DEPARTMENT

Overview

The risk of PPD for a woman giving birth ranges between 10 and 20% worldwide, with about a third of postpartum depression that begin during pregnancy. PPD has been associated to negative short-/long-term effects for the mother's health, the child's health and early interactions when left untreated. PPD is underdiagnosed, less than half of patients being diagnosed partly because of atypical symptoms, reluctance of patients to seek help, and because of the lack of systematic screening for this condition. Other specific biological changes could also be involved. Reduction in plasma oxytocin levels have been shown to be associated with the risk of PPD and heritability studies have identified a genetic contribution. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a self-administered questionnaire of 10 items, is recommended by the NICE guideline and French National Authority for Health for screening peripartum women, validated in French and well accepted. In France, the first contact with midwives or obstetricians during pregnancy usually occurs around the 4th month of pregnancy. French National Authority for Health recommends evaluation of risk factors for depression during this first consultation. However, this interview is rarely done probably because assessment of depression could be considered as difficult and time consuming. However, a meta-analysis shows that screening depression in the general population significantly reduces the risk for persistent depression (relative risk 0.87 \[95%CI 0.79 to 0.95\]), as compared to usual care. Our hypothesis is that early identification of vulnerability/depression in pregnant women would enable clinical team to offer adequate psychological and psychosocial care during pregnancy, thus reducing PPD in these women. The investigators propose to assess the impact of a systematic screening of depression using EPDS during an early consultation in comparison with usual practices, on the risk of depression during peripartum period (PPD).

Follow-up of pregnancy by medical staff will be performed as usual: referral to specific structures, according to the usual hospital care protocols, which do not fall within the scope of this protocol. An independent psychologist will conduct blinded evaluation of perinatal depression using a semi-structured interview (DIGS) based on the DSM-5 criteria (i) between the first and fifth day postpartum and (ii) at 8 weeks post-partum to assess the primary endpoint. The interview will also allow assessment of management of specialized care during pregnancy and during postpartum at week 8 after childbirth (specialized consultation, psychotherapy, drug treatment: nature, frequency and doses for therapeutics). The choice of a cluster randomization over individual randomization is justified by the risk of contamination bias in the depression screening. The choice of a clinician randomization over center randomization is justified by the high heterogeneity of patient's characteristics between centres.