Assessing the severity of depressive states in recently detoxified alcoholics

The problem of how to assess "unbiased" symptoms of depression meaningfully in the context of alcoholism bedevils studies of concomitant alcoholism and affective disorder. This study summarizes this controversy and discusses its implications for developing improved measures of depression severity among alcoholics. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) responses of 130 alcoholic applicants applying for inpatient care were evaluated using a two-parameter normal item response model. This study demonstrates that a single dimension of depression severity accounts for patient responses well, but that seven BDI items were relatively poor markers of syndrome severity for these alcoholics. The study documents growing consensus among investigators as to which BDI items constitute a fair scale of depression severity among alcoholic patients The availability of "unbiased criteria" for assessing the severity of depression among alcoholics applying for inpatient treatment will enable investigators and clinicians to recognize patients with concomitant alcoholism and affective disorder for special attention and/or treatment. The modified BDI scale proposed here is a candidate for a clinical definition of depression severity among alcoholic patients by virtue of this study's demonstration that it defines a distinct syndrome in this patient sample; but the modified scale must undergo independent tests of validity before its clinical utility can be established.