Comparison among inpatients, outpatients, and normals on three self-report depression inventories

Used the Beck Depression Inventory, Form E of the Depression Adjective Check Lists and also the Generalized Contentment Scale to measure depression in 219 Ss, who included inpatients, outpatients, and normals. Data were analyzed using t-test comparisons of means using Bonferroni procedures. Results indicated that depression was significantly greater (for all three depression measures, patient-normal differences were significant at p less than .000) in a general psychiatric patient sample than in a normal group. Inpatients were not found to be more depressed than outpatients, and females did not indicate greater depression than males. The expectation that patients diagnosed depressed would score higher on self-report depression scales than patients not diagnosed depressed received partial support. Kuder-Richardson reliabilities computed for the depression inventories were judged to be acceptably reliable. Concurrent validity was appraised by computing Pearson product-moment correlations for the scales on each of the samples. All correlations were positive and significant at p less than .002.