Tracking of postpartum depression in women attending the Family Health Program. Access: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbgo/v27n4/a04v27n4
Screening Scale
The diagnosis of postpartum mood swings disorders is difficult, with no final consensus for self diagnosis, etiology and treatment. There are no physiological and clinical parameters to evaluate the clinical manifestations of mood alteration.
There are several screening scales for psychometric assessment that can be used to measure and characterize symptoms, although they cannot be considered as a criterion for diagnosis.
The disadvantages include difficulty in analyzing reliability, besides the fact that their use requires minimum educational level and cooperation from the respondents.
The screening scales of depressive symptoms during postpartum period are part of the active search strategy. They are widely used in research, although the same does not happen in practice.