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Validity of Gotland Male Depression Scale for male depression in a community study: the Sudurnesjamenn study
Bjarni Sigurdsson1, Sigurdur Pall Palsson2, Olafur Aevarsson3
1Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Background:
Several studies suggest a "male depressive syndrome", where not only the standard symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) but also symptoms of anxiety, anger, irritability and antisocial behaviour are prominent.
Method:
In a community study, 534 males were screened for possible depression by the Gotland Male Depression Scale (GMDS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI). For comparison psychiatrists examined a sub-sample of healthy and depressive males (n=137). The validity of the GMDS was compared both with the BDI and MDD diagnosis according to DSM-IV.
Results:
GMDS was as good as BDI for screening males. ROC-curve analysis gave AUC 0.945 (95% CI 0.923-0.968) for GMDS when tested against BDI. Second, when both scales were tested by ROC-curves against DSM-IV, the GMDS had AUC=0.861 (95% CI 0.800-0.921) and BDI had AUC=0.822 (95% CI 0.751-0.893). The estimated prevalence was 14-15%.
Limitations:
Low participation rate (25%) in the screening phase.
Conclusion:
GMDS is a valid screening tool for detecting male depression (MDD). Furthermore it is a short self-rating scale, easy to use in daily practice to screen for depression. Our results support recent reports of high prevalence of depressions in the community which supports active screening of males in clinical practice.
