Faculty Sponsor

Jana Stedman

College

College of Nursing & Health Professions (CONHP)

Department/Program

Physician Assistant

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Summer 7-22-2026

Abstract

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 1 in 8 women with only 50% diagnosed by a medical professional. Epidural analgesia use during the intrapartum period has been found to have a possible effect on decreasing the risk of PPD. This paper aims to answer the question of if epidural use has a negative association with PPD. A narrative literature review was conducted to evaluate the association between epidural analgesia and PPD. A comprehensive search of Google Scholar and UpToDate was performed using relevant keywords with studies included if they compared PPD outcomes in antepartum women undergoing normal spontaneous vaginal delivery with and without epidural analgesia. Cesarean deliveries were excluded to reduce confounders. The primary outcome was PPD, defined by clinical diagnosis or validated screening tools such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS). Five articles were chosen to be synthesized to identify trends and associations with two systematic reviews, two cohort studies, and one observational study. After careful review of these articles, it was determined that epidural analgesia use during labor likely has no association on PPD risk. While there were studies that found that there was a negative association between epidural use and PPD, others found no association. Patients should be counseled that there is likely no association, however, there was never a harmful effect found. Further studies should focus on obtaining larger sample sizes, continuity of screening tools, and reduction of confounders to solidify the current evidence.

Keywords: Postpartum depression, epidural, no epidural, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Hannah Schoner has a special interest in Women's Health and Urology. Her research topic of "Epidural Analgesia and Postpartum Depression: Is there an Association?" was inspired by the real world implications that epidural use during labor may have on the mental health of mothers. Postpartum depression is heavily prevalent in our population. If there is a common medicinal measure used in labor already, why not determine if it can be used to reduce this condition?

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