Table 1.

Study characteristics

Authors	Country	Method	Sample	Sampling approach/response rate	Primary objective
Chew-Graham et al (2008) 28	UK	In-depth interviews, thematic analysis	Purposive sample of 19 GPs recruited from participants in multicentre RCT (RESPOND — Randomised Evaluation of antidepressants and Support for women with POstNatal Depression)	Sampling was purposive and sought to achieve maximum variation in relation to GPs’ age, sex, length of time in general practice, practice size and level of deprivation	To explore the views of GPs and health visitors on the diagnosis and management of postnatal depression
Chew-Graham et al (2009) 29	UK	In-depth interviews, thematic analysis	Same sample as Chew-Graham (2008) above	As above	To explore GPs’, health visitors’, and females’ views on the disclosure of symptoms that may indicate depression in primary care
Jayawickrama et al (2010) 31	Australia	Anonymous postal survey, content analysis	335 GPs: 70% female 37% aged 45–54 years 84% obtained medical degree in Australia 90% had children 49% of them (or their partners) had >12 months experience of breastfeeding	125/640 (19.5%) GPs responded to survey and provided open-ended comments on prescribing decisions, 54 GPs (8.4%) mentioned depression	Explore GPs’ decision making when they are considering recommending or prescribing medication for a breastfeeding woman
McCauley and Casson (2013) 30	UK (Northern Ireland)	Semi-structured interviews, Colaizzi’s process of analysis	Eight GPs: two male, six female	Ten practice managers were invited to identify GPs who were eligible for involvement, eight GPs were identified	Develop an in-depth understanding of GPs’ experience of using guidelines in the treatment of perinatal depression and if this enabled them to empower women to become involved in treatment decisions
Khan (2015) 32	Mainly UK	Postal survey plus semi-structured interview with three survey responders, interpretive phenomenology	43 GPs: 40 from England, one from Wales, one from Scotland, one from India Over half had <11 years’ experience in general practice, just over a third had practised for 1–3 years. Just over a quarter had >20 years’ experience. 14% felt they held a partially specialist role in perinatal mental health care	The GP survey was distributed to an unknown but large number of GPs through virtual portals. Only 43 GPs responded	To better understand the contribution of GPs to the area of perinatal mental health