Validation of the Italian version of the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E)

The Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) was developed for the rapid detection of a major depressive episode in people with epilepsy. It has been proven to be a user-friendly screening instrument. This study describes the development, validation, and psychometric properties of the Italian version of the NDDI-E. A consecutive sample of 120 outpatients with epilepsy has been assessed using the M.I.N.I. Plus version 5.0.0 and the NDDI-E. All patients had no major difficulties in understanding or answering the questions of the Italian version. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.851. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.943 (CI95%=0.902-0.985; SE 0.021; p<0.001), a cut off score of 13, a sensitivity of 86.2%, a specificity of 89%, a positive predictive value of 71.4%, and a negative predictive value of 95.3%.