Chronic stressors and maternal depression: implications for prevention

We report on the use of an instrument to measure exposure to stressors among 149 women presenting with their children for pediatric care at an urban primary care center. Overall, 38.3 percent of the women had significant levels of depressive symptoms; 71.4 percent of those in the "high stress" group had an adjusted prevalence odds ratio of 5.00 [95% CI = 2.12, 11.82]. We conclude that screening in the pediatric office is feasible for identifying women at high risk of becoming depressed.