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Updated: Jun 16, 2026
Association Between Sleep Quality and Cognitive Symptoms in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder
Published on: April 26, 2024
Diagnostic utility of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS-C16 and QIDS-SR16) in the elderly
P Murali Doraiswamy1, I H Bernstein, A J Rush
1Department of Psychiatry, and The Center for the Study of Aging, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA. dorai001@mc.duke.edu
Objective:
To evaluate psychometric properties and comparability ability of the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) vs. the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Clinician-rated (QIDS-C(16)) and Self-report (QIDS-SR(16)) scales to detect a current major depressive episode in the elderly.
Method:
Community and clinic subjects (age >or=60 years) were administered the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for DSM-IV and three depression scales randomly. Statistics included classical test and Samejima item response theories, factor analyzes, and receiver operating characteristic methods.
Results:
In 229 elderly patients (mean age = 73 years, 39% male, 54% current depression), all three scales were unidimensional and with nearly equal Cronbach alpha reliability (0.85-0.89). Each scale discriminated persons with major depression from the non-depressed, but the QIDS-C(16) was slightly more accurate.
Conclusion:
All three tests are valid for detecting geriatric major depression with the QIDS-C(16) being slightly better. Self-rated QIDS-SR(16) is recommended as a screening tool as it is least expensive and least time consuming.
