Does postnatal depression screening work? Throwing out the bathwater, keeping the baby

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Rates of help-seeking for Postnatal Depression (PND) are generally low and population screening has the potential to increase diagnosis rates. Of central importance is the screening instrument's Positive Predictive Value (PPV), which is itself influenced by the prevalence of the condition. When PPV exceeds prevalence, screening defines a screen-positive group with a higher prevalence to which diagnostic-stage procedures can be targeted, a necessary component of a screening program's potential for cost-effectiveness. METHODS: Employing the best available estimates of the prevalence of PND we applied Bayes' Theorem to map the parameter space for the Positive Predictive Value of the..