Depression in Pregnancy: A Psychiatric Dilemma

Objective: To highlight the clinical problem of antenatal depression. Method: A brief literature search was done to write a short review. The search was conducted in the databases like PubMed for the articles discussing the association of pregnancy with major depression. The search for this short review was conducted from January 2015 to February 2015, in California, USA with an intention to highlight the already established association of major depression with pregnancy. Result: Pregnancy is associated with various psychiatric problems. Major depression is the most common of all the psychiatric problems seen in pregnancy. Conclusion: Because many symptoms during pregnancy are easily confused with major depression. It is very easy to misdiagnose. The wrong diagnosis or a missed diagnosis of depression are equally harmful to the maternal and fetal health. Therefore, it is recommended that appropriate measures like assessment and screening tools plus education should be taken by the hospitals in order to help gynecologists to be able to differentiate major depression from the normal symptoms of pregnancy.