A comparison among some measures of depression in male alcoholics

The efficacy of three depression scales--the Dysthymic scale of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)--in assessing depressive symptoms in 67 male alcoholic patients was compared. The criterion of depression was the patient's score on the Depression scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. In addition, the effects of age on the test results were explored as it was believed that the GDS would be less affected by age than the other two scales. The findings disclosed that all three depression scales are comparable in assessing depressive symptoms and that age is not a factor in any of the scales.