Vlenterie R, et al. – The main purpose of the present study was to provide an epidemiological evaluation of the Patient Health Questionnaire–2 (PHQ–2) among pregnant women. In spite of the relatively high number of false–positive screens, initial screening for depression by two questions only could enhance routine evaluation of depressive symptoms among pregnant women.

Methods

• An aggregate of three thousand thirty three pregnant women partaking in the PRegnancy and Infant DEvelopment Study completed the PHQ-2 as well as the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale-Depression (HADS-D) or the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) 3 times throughout pregnancy.
• The validity of the PHQ-2 was evaluated with the HADS-D/EDS as reference standard.

Results

• The results of this study showed that sensitivity and specificity of the PHQ-2 were 69–84% and 79–84%, respectively.
• Findings revealed that the positive predictive values (range 19–26%) were substantially lower than the negative predictive values (96–99%).