Screening for postpartum depression has been considered essential. The Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS; Beck & Gable, 2002) is a self-report instrument, composed of 35 items placed in the specific context of new maternity. The aim of the present study was to determine, for the first time, PDSS cut-off points (adjusted to the real prevalence) and associated conditional probabilities to screen for depression in the post-partum, according to DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. Participants were 452 women, mean age=30.52 years (SD=4.176) in their third month post-partum (M=13.07 weeks post-partum; SD=1.808). All women completed the Portuguese version of the PDSS and were interviewed using the Mood disorders Section/Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies. ROC analysis was applied and both cut-off points and associated conditional probabilities adjusted to the real prevalence were determined. For major depression/DSM-IV the cut-off point of 69 (prevalence - 4.0%), resulted in sensitivity of 77.8%, specificity of 86.9%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 19.7% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 98.9%; for depressive disorder/ICD-10 the cut-off point of 67 (prevalence - 4.9%) determined sensitivity 77.3%, specificity 85.3%, PPV 21.2%, NPV 98.6%; for mild/moderate depression with somatic syndrome or severe depression without psychotic symptoms/ICD-10 (prevalence - 2.7%) the cut-off point of 80 was associated to sensitivity 91.7%, specificity 94.3%, PPV 30.6% and NPV 99.8%.In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the PDSS revealed to be a valid instrument to screen for depression in the post-partum.

*Data for this study were drawn from a research project on Postpartum Depression and Sleep, FCT (POCI/SAU-ESP/57068/2004).