Assessing depression in substance abusers: Beck Depression Inventory and SCL-90R

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and two subscales of the Symptom Checklist-90R (SCL-90R) were compared for assessing depression by giving both instruments to 32 inpatient and 22 outpatient substance abusers. For the inpatients (N = 27), 1-month test-retest reliabilities were .82, .87, and .84 for the BDI and the two subscales of the SCL-90R respectively. For both inpatients (two occasions) and outpatients, the BDI correlated highly (.82 to .90) with the two depression subscales of the SCL-90R. Using both the BDI and the SCL-90R in the same study may simply provide redundant information rather than a more comprehensive assessment of depression in substance abusers.