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Depression screening instruments made good severity measures in a cross-sectional analysis
William H Rogers1, David A Adler, Kathleen M Bungay
1The Health Institute, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts-New England Medical Center (T-NEMC), 750 Washington Street, Box 345, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
|May 3, 2005
Summary
Different depression screening tools are equivalent to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). These screeners can effectively assess depression severity, reducing patient burden without compromising accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Accurate depression diagnosis and severity assessment are crucial for effective treatment.
- Multiple survey instruments exist for diagnosing depression and assessing its severity.
- Comparing the performance and score equivalence of these instruments is essential for clinical utility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the diagnostic and severity assessment equivalence of various depression survey instruments.
- To establish methods for converting scores between equivalent instruments.
- To evaluate the performance of screeners as severity measures.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional analysis of six convenience samples.
- Comparison of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) with Primary Care Screener for Affective Disorder, Prime-MD-PHQ, Inventory to Diagnose Depression, Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire depression subscale, and SF-36 Mental Health Inventory.
- Correlation, sensitivity, and specificity analyses were performed.
Main Results:
- High correlations (0.79–0.95) were found between screening instruments and the BDI.
- Screening instruments demonstrated comparable or superior sensitivity and specificity.
- A method for equating severity scores across instruments was developed and validated.
Conclusions:
- Screener-based depression severity measures show significant overlap and are largely equivalent.
- Effective depression screeners can also serve as reliable severity instruments.
- Utilizing screeners for severity assessment can reduce patient response burden while maintaining performance levels.