[Symposium 115] Clinical Diagnosis is critical to advancing the improvement in clinical care and outcomes through research in mental health

[SY-115-03] Clinical Diagnosis is critical to advancing the improvement in clinical care and outcomes through research in mental health

*Katherine Sevar^1,2, Harish Kalra¹ (1. Monash University (Australia), 2. Monash Health (Australia))

Keywords:

perinatal psychiatry,cultural psychiatry,social determinants of psychiatry

The influence of migration on perinatal depression has been examined with evidence of the effect being mixed. A systematic review was undertaken to critically examine the influence of migration on the risk of developing perinatal depression among migrant women.A comprehensive search strategy using broad terms to capture the variation in language used to describe migrants, on multiple databases was applied. Most studies demonstrated increased perinatal depression in migrants with the majority of the studies (18/20) utilising only self-report measures with 15 using varied cut off scores of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The two studies utilising clinical diagnostic measures of depression demonstrated no difference in rates of perinatal depression.Firstly, the presentation will highlight the limitations of the reliance on current evidence using self-report measures for diagnosis of perinatal depression among women residing in low and middle income countries (LMIC), and women who migrate from LMIC.Secondly, the findings of the systematic review will be discussed with an emphasized need for robustly designed studies with inclusion of clinical diagnostic measures of depression and common covariates of perinatal depression, to influence policy and response.Thirdly, the presentation will argue that elevated scores on self-report measures including Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) may represent psychological distress secondary to other covariates such as domestic violence, or violence experienced during migration.