The differentiation between depressive and anxious adolescent females and controls by behavioural self-rating scales

This study aimed to validate the ability of frequently used self-assessment scales in Swedish child and adolescent psychiatric practice to differentiate between adolescent girls with manifest anxiety disorders and depression from those with less severe symptoms.

The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated for Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), the emotional subscale (SDQ-em), the impact score and the total difficulties score of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Sense of Coherence (SOC) in a sample of 73 adolescent, female patients, diagnosed with one or several anxiety disorders and/or depression. ROC was also calculated for 66 age-matched controls.

SOC and the SDQ-em showed the best ability to differentiate cases of anxiety disorders and/ or depression from non-cases. SOC and SDQ-em had an equivalent ability to differentiate depression from non-cases compared to the specialised scales for depression, BDI and HAD-dep. SOC and SDQ-em were significantly better in differentiating cases of anxiety from non-cases than the specialised scales BAI and HAD-anx. Selection bias and several forms to fill in can have influenced the result.

SOC and SDQ-em seemed to be valid tools for identifying girls with anxiety disorders and depression. This is of clinical importance since self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression show a major increase in adolescent girls and methods to identify those in need of treatment are needed.