Assessment of depression by questionnaire compared to DSM-III diagnosis

The LPD, a self-report questionnaire which provides a quantitative and qualitative measure of depression, was examined in relation to a criterion-based system of diagnosis, the DSM-III. Results from 190 psychiatric inpatients suggest that the LPD distinguishes depressive from non-depressive syndromes in terms of severity of depression and that patients with melancholic major depression are more severely depressed than those with non-melancholic major depression. Furthermore, major depression with melancholia and major depression without melancholia, both conform to the LPD profile of endogenous depression whereas other depressive syndromes do not. A comparison of the two systems of categorizing depression also suggests that the LPD is a relatively sensitive predictor of the diagnosis of major depressive disorder.