Dr. Daphna Harel recently published an article in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica where she created a shortened form of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), a self‐report questionnaire used for depression screening in pregnancy and postpartum, based on objective criteria.

Alongside the DEPRESsion Screening Data (DEPRESSD) EPDS Collaboration, Dr. Harel used novel methodology to create this 5-item shortened version of the EPDS. The study uses a large sample of 5157 participants (765 major depression cases) from 22 primary screening accuracy studies that compared the EPDS to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM. By using optimal test assembly methods to generate the shortened version, the shortened version maintains non-inferior diagnostic and psychometric properties to the full-length form.

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