Table 1 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Inclusion | Exclusion | |
|---|---|---|
Participants | ● > 50% study participants had personally experienced depression in the perinatal period, whether new episode or continuing episode of pre-existing diagnosis ● Discussing current episode or recalling details retrospectively ● Perinatal depression either diagnosed by clinicians, detected through screening questionnaires (such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale) or self-identified ● Participants who had experienced a pregnancy of any duration and a live birth or a miscarriage or a stillbirth. ● Perinatal period defined as pregnancy up to 2 years post birth ● No age restrictions ● No restrictions on other physical or mental health co-morbidities (apart from substance misuse) | ● Participants with a co-morbid diagnosis of substance misuse disorder. ● Participants who have experienced distress, bereavement, loss, grief or trauma during the perinatal period but without a diagnosis of perinatal depression ● Studies including qualitative data collected from health care professionals, partners or other people with close experience of and interactions with women with perinatal depression. ● Participants discussing experience of depression outside the perinatal period |
Concept | ● Any primary research study with a qualitative research design to explore a participant’s experience, including any data collection method (such as interviews, focus groups, diaries or online data collection) and any method of qualitative analysis of primary data (such as grounded theory, ethnography, thematic analysis, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), framework approach, or narrative analysis). ● Majority (> 50%) of the results section concerned with participants discussing their subjective experiences of loneliness or closely-related themes (such as perceived social isolation, lack of connection or lack of social support) associated with their perinatal depression. | ● Existing qualitative meta-syntheses or reviews ● Mixed methods studies (the qualitative element of these studies did not tend to be of high enough quality). ● Case studies or ethnographic exploration with only one participant ● Conference abstracts, PhD theses, dissertations or other types of grey literature. ● Studies evaluating an intervention. |
Context | ● Studies in any geographical or cultural setting. | |
Language | ● English only | ● Non-English |