The doctore just gave me one of those questionnaires to do...

[Haribosmum]

but what do the scores mean exactly? I got a score of 16. I already know I'm depressed so how does this help the doctor?

TBH I didn't think the questionnaire helped diagnose my PND. the best thing would be just to talk to your doctor and explain how you feel.

Are you being treated for your depression? If so I'm surprised they bothered with the questionaire - I was never given one, I was on ADs when DD was a week old, so I guess the HV/GP didn't see the point.

Think it's to help gauge how badly you are affected rather than prove you have it. I did it the first time i was diagnosed but not the next times.

Yeah I'm already on AD but the doctor said he wasted to do one as a review to see if they were working.

They won't help the GP to diagnose, but they can help him keep an eye on how you are feeling. It's sometimes hard to tell whether you're feeling any better than you were last time, so they can use the scores as a way of keeping tabs on things.

I saw my HV every week for a year or so, and that's how she used the tests. Eventually the scores started to get higher, and she felt she was out of her depth so asked me to see the GP.

the questionnaire is not to prove whether you have depression, but look at the different ways it affects you, as all experience it differently. It can also help you to explain your symptoms to someone else, which can otherwise be really hard. It can help to see how things change over time, as well.

13 is diagnostic for PND, I had to do them regularly and saw my scores drop from 28/30 to 7/30, so I knew I was getting better