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Published on: September 23, 2021
Beck Depression Inventory as a screening tool for depression in chronic haemodialysis patients
Alison Bautovich1, Ivor Katz2, Colleen Ken Loo3
1Consultant Psychiatrist, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, and; NSW Institute of Psychiatry, Westmead, NSW, and; St George Hospital, Kogarah, Australia; Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
Objectives:
To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Cognitive Depression Index (CDI) as a potential screening tool for major depression in haemodialysis (HD) patients.
Methods:
Forty-five HD patients completed both the BDI/CDI and diagnostic interview. The interview was conducted by two experienced clinicians and was based on DSM-IV criteria. The sensitivity, specificity and positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values were then calculated.
Results:
A diagnosis of depression was found in 6 of the 45 participants (13.3%). Optimal cut-offs were ≥18 for the BDI (sensitivity 1.0, specificity 0.90, PPV 0.60, NPV 1.0) and ≥11 for the CDI (sensitivity 1.0, specificity 0.92, PPV 0.67, NPV 1.0).
Conclusions:
Both the BDI and CDI were shown to be acceptable screening tools for depression in this population of chronic HD patients. The recommended cut-off scores for both scales are higher than those suggested for the general population and slightly higher than previously found in the chronic kidney disease literature, suggesting that altered thresholds are required when using these screening tools amongst HD patients.
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