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Before you begin

{{ assessmentDefinition.instrument.name }} is a 10-item perinatal depression screen for the past seven days. It supports follow-up; it does not diagnose depression or establish safety.

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Answer review
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Assessment Score the nine PHQ-9 symptoms, keep functional impact separate, and flag any Item 9 response for direct follow-up regardless of the total.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Assessment Score the GAD-7 for the last two weeks and compare anxiety symptom severity with the separate impact on work, home tasks, and relationships.
Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) Assessment Complete the DASS-21 for the past week and review doubled Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scores with exact severity bands and safety context.
Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D-20) Check past-week depressive symptom frequency with the 20-item CES-D and review reverse scoring, the 16-point line, and optional answer review.
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Pregnancy and the year after birth can bring emotional strain alongside interrupted sleep, physical recovery, feeding demands, changing relationships, and the practical work of caring for a baby. Because several of these experiences overlap, distress may be dismissed as something a parent should simply endure. Persistent loss of enjoyment, anxiety, panic, self-blame, difficulty coping, sadness, crying, or thoughts of self-harm deserve direct attention.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a 10-item screening questionnaire for women and birthing parents during pregnancy and the first postnatal year. It asks about the previous seven days, giving a recent view of emotional wellbeing rather than a lifetime history or a measure of parenting ability.

  • A screening score helps decide whether monitoring or a fuller assessment is warranted.
  • A clinical assessment considers the score with symptoms, functioning, history, support, language, culture, and current safety.
  • A safety assessment responds directly to thoughts, intent, plans, access to means, and the safety of the parent and baby. The total score cannot replace it.

Those three decisions are related but not interchangeable. A low total can miss an urgent concern, while a higher total can reflect several kinds of distress that need further evaluation rather than an automatic diagnosis. Appropriate translated versions matter when English is not the respondent’s strongest language, because wording and cultural context can change how the choices are understood.

Question 10 has special importance because it asks whether the thought of self-harm has occurred. Any response above “Never” needs prompt direct assessment by a qualified health professional regardless of the total. If thoughts feel immediate, specific, hard to resist, or safety for the parent or baby is uncertain, contact local emergency services now and stay with a trusted person while help is arranged.

The EPDS cannot diagnose depression, identify a cause, select treatment, or prove that someone is safe. Its value comes from connecting a structured seven-day response pattern to an appropriate conversation and follow-up pathway.

How to Use This Tool:

Use the original English form only when it suits the respondent, and answer every item from the same previous-seven-days window.

  1. Begin the assessment with privacy and support in place, especially if difficult answers may need immediate discussion.
  2. Choose the exact response that best describes each of the 10 statements. Read the labels carefully because their displayed order changes between questions.
  3. Complete every item, then read the EPDS total and its follow-up range together with the Question 10 safety status.
  4. Follow any Safety and support notice before the general score guidance. Use Answer review to check a response or discuss high-scored items with a qualified professional.

Interpreting Results:

Check Question 10 first. A response scored 1, 2, or 3 activates the direct safety guidance even when the total is in the lower range. The total remains mathematically valid, but it does not reduce the urgency of a positive self-harm response.

Total Result Follow-up meaning
0 to 9 Lower range Review functioning, high-scored items, and concerns that the total may not reflect. It is not an all-clear.
10 to 12 Repeat soon Monitor and repeat in 2 to 4 weeks, with earlier action when clinical judgment or worsening symptoms require it.
13 to 30 Follow-up assessment Arrange a fuller assessment through an appropriate maternity, primary-care, or mental-health pathway.

A band names a follow-up route, not a diagnosis or a prediction about the parent or baby. Repeated results are comparable only when the same form, language, seven-day frame, and administration conditions are used.

Technical Details:

The 1987 English EPDS assigns a declared score of 0, 1, 2, or 3 to each selected response. Higher item contributions represent more reported perinatal depressive or distress symptoms during the previous seven days. All 10 contributions have equal weight.

Transformation Core

Response position is not a safe scoring shortcut. Questions 1, 2, and 4 display choices in ascending score order, while Questions 3 and 5 through 10 display the higher-scored labels first. The selected label carries its own declared score.

Items Displayed score order Scoring treatment
Questions 1, 2, and 40, 1, 2, 3Use the score attached to the selected response.
Questions 3 and 5 to 93, 2, 1, 0Use the score attached to the selected response; do not score by screen position.
Question 103, 2, 1, 0Add its score to the total and apply the independent safety rule.

Formula Core

The EPDS total is the unweighted sum of the 10 item scores.

T= ∑ i=1 10 si where si ∈ {0,1,2,3}

T is the complete EPDS total and si is the declared score for item i. The result is an integer from 0 to 30. There are no subscores, multipliers, averages, prorating rules, or rounding steps.

Rule Core

The total selects one contiguous range: T ≤ 9, 9 < T ≤ 12, or T > 12. Independently, Question 10 values 1, 2, and 3 activate direct review with higher priority than the aggregate interpretation.

A complete result requires all 10 answers. The safety rule changes the urgency of the next action without changing T, and a zero Question 10 score does not by itself prove that no other safety concern exists.

Limitations and Privacy:

Recall, language, culture, current circumstances, and willingness to disclose can affect an EPDS result. Clinical history, functioning, current presentation, and local care pathways remain necessary for decisions about diagnosis or treatment.

  • Answers and progress update this page's URL as you work. Anyone with the URL can read and edit the responses; the URL is not encrypted or access-controlled. Opening or reloading it sends the URL to this website and may leave it in browser history or server logs.
  • It is not encrypted, so anyone with the link may read the answers.
  • Starting over clears this attempt and removes its response state from the current URL; it does not erase previously copied links, browser history or server logs.
  • Do not use the score for employment, insurance, eligibility, or as proof that a parent or baby is safe.

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