A German validation study of the inventory to diagnose depression

The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD), a self-rating scale designed to identify major depressive episodes (MDE) according to DSM-III, was validated in a sample of 83 inpatients. Depending whether the time criterion of MDE was included or omitted, 63 or 77 patients obtained a syndrome diagnosis of MDE established by means of a structured clinical interview (Polydiagnostic Interview) which served as yardstick. Sensitivity (84.1% with time criterion, 89.6% without time criterion), specificity (60%, 50%), predictive value (67.8%, 64.2%) and kappa (0.43, 0.29) were calculated and found to necessitate improvement for a reasonable application of the IDD in epidemiological and clinical settings. Adapting the IDD algorithm to DSM-III-R diagnosis of MDE, analogous results were obtained.