EPDS Score Calculator (Postnatal Depression Scale)

About the EPDS Score Calculator (Postnatal Depression Scale)

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is the ten-question questionnaire that midwives, health visitors and doctors in many countries use to check for depression during pregnancy and after birth. Each question asks how you have felt over the past 7 days and has four answers scored 0 to 3, but seven of the ten are scored in reverse, so adding up a paper form by hand is easy to get wrong.

This page scores an EPDS you have already filled in. For each question, mark which of the four answers was ticked (or the points, if your copy prints them) and it applies the published scoring, gives the total out of 30 and explains the usual cut-offs: 10 or more for possible depression and 13 or more for probable depression. If question 10, about thoughts of harming yourself, scores anything at all, support lines for your country appear at once. The questions themselves are not shown: the scale is copyright and its publisher requires permission to put it online. Your answers are never stored.

How the EPDS is scored

Each of the ten questions has four answers, scored 0, 1, 2 or 3. On questions 1, 2 and 4 the top answer scores 0 and the bottom answer 3. Questions 3 and 5 to 10 — marked with an asterisk on the form — are reverse scored: the top answer scores 3 and the bottom answer 0. The total runs from 0 to 30; a higher score means more symptoms. All ten questions need an answer for a total.

What a score of 10 or 13 means

• Below 10: depression is less likely, but a questionnaire cannot rule it out.
• 10 or more: possible depression. For a score of 10 to 12, guidelines advise keeping an eye on how things go and repeating the EPDS a few weeks later, because it may rise: 2 to 4 weeks later in Australia’s perinatal mental health guideline.
• 13 or more: probable depression; guidelines advise a further assessment by a health professional.
• Any points on question 10: immediate further assessment, whatever the total.

A review that pooled individual data from 58 studies looked at the 36 that compared the EPDS with a semi-structured diagnostic interview: a cut-off of 10 or more picked up 85% of people with major depression and correctly cleared 84% of people without it; 11 or more balanced the two best (81% and 88%); 13 or more picked up 66% but cleared 95%. So the EPDS is a screen, not a diagnosis: a health professional makes the diagnosis by talking with you.

Question 10 and getting help now

Question 10 asks about thoughts of harming yourself. Any answer except the last one scores points, and the page then shows support lines straight away:

• India: Tele-MANAS, 14416 or 1-800-891-4416, toll-free, day and night.
• United States: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call or text 988; National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, call or text 1-833-852-6262 (1-833-TLC-MAMA), free and 24/7.
• UK and Ireland: Samaritans, 116 123, free from any phone. In England, NHS 111: call 111 and choose the mental health option.
• Australia: Lifeline, 13 11 14; PANDA perinatal helpline, 1300 726 306, 7 days a week (support, not a crisis service).
• Canada: 9-8-8, call or text 9-8-8. New Zealand: 1737, call or text 1737.
• Anywhere else: Find A Helpline lists free, confidential helplines in more than 175 countries.

If you or your baby are in danger now, call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency department.

Baby blues, postnatal depression and postpartum psychosis

• Baby blues: feeling low, anxious or irritable for a few days after the birth is very common and usually goes away within 2 weeks. Get help if it lasts, gets worse or you are struggling to cope.
• Postnatal depression can start during pregnancy, soon after the birth or up to a year later. Signs include low mood, finding it hard to enjoy anything, difficulty bonding with your baby, feeling hopeless or guilty, poor sleep even when you could rest, and thoughts of harming yourself or your baby. Fathers and partners can have depression after a birth too. It is common and it gets better with support and treatment: talk to your GP, midwife or health visitor even if you have only some of the signs.
• Postpartum psychosis is rare (about 1 in 1,000 new mothers) and a medical emergency. It usually starts suddenly in the first 2 weeks, with hallucinations, delusions, mania, low mood or confusion. See a doctor the same day; call 999 (or your emergency number) or go to an emergency department if anyone may be in danger.

Why the questions are not on this page

The EPDS was published by Cox, Holden and Sagovsky in the British Journal of Psychiatry and the copyright belongs to The Royal College of Psychiatrists. Its current terms require written permission from Cambridge University Press for copying it for others or republishing it, online included. So this page applies the published scoring to the answers on your own copy instead of reproducing the questions. If you do not have an EPDS, ask your midwife, health visitor or doctor for one, or take the PHQ-9 depression questionnaire on this site, which may be copied freely; tell your clinician which one you used.

Sources

• Cox JL, Holden JM, Sagovsky R, Detection of postnatal depression: development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, British Journal of Psychiatry.
• Levis B et al., Accuracy of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for screening to detect major depression among pregnant and postpartum women, BMJ.
• El-Den S et al., Perinatal depression screening: a systematic review of recommendations from member countries of the OECD, Archives of Women’s Mental Health — including Australia’s perinatal mental health guideline (COPE) on scores of 10–12, 13 or more and question 10.
• ACOG Clinical Practice Guideline No. 4, Screening and diagnosis of mental health conditions during pregnancy and postpartum.
• NHS, Postnatal depression and Postpartum psychosis.
• EPDS copyright and permissions as acknowledged in Stentzel U et al., UPlusE study protocol, Trials.

Limitations

• This page scores a completed EPDS; it does not show the questions, so you need your own copy.
• The EPDS is a screening questionnaire, not a diagnosis. A score below 10 does not rule depression out, and a high score needs a professional assessment.
• It asks only about the past 7 days. Some services use different cut-offs, for example higher ones during pregnancy or for translated versions: your clinician’s cut-off is the one that counts.
• Support lines are listed for India, the United States, the UK and Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; for other countries the page points to Find A Helpline.

Privacy

On this device: nothing is sent

Your answers stay in the page while it is open: they are never saved on your device or sent to MySmartCoPilot or anyone else, and they are gone when you leave, reload or close the page. The printed, copied or downloaded summary is created only when you ask for it.