Use of brief psychiatric screening measures in a primary care sample

Patients seen in primary medical clinics report higher rates of major depression [Pérez-Stable et al., 1990: Arch Intern Med 15:1083-1088], and panic disorder [Sherbourne et al., 1996b: Von Korff et al., 1987: Arch Gen Psychiatry 44:152-156] than the general population. Primary care staff therefore need efficient methods of identifying patients with psychiatric disorders. The current study evaluates the use of several brief psychiatric screening measures for identifying patients with major depression and/or anxiety disorders. Participants were 213 primary care patients who received the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and two new instruments, the Autonomic Nervous System Questionnaire (ANS) for assessing panic disorder and the Social Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) for assessing social phobia. Participants received both the screening instruments and a structured diagnostic interview. Results suggest that the CES-D is a useful measure for detecting psychopathology, but it is not particularly specific to depression, the ANS was a highly sensitive and reasonably specific measure for panic disorder, and the SPQ was reasonably sensitive and specific for social phobia. The BAI was a relatively poor screening measure that added no significant information beyond the other measures.