[A depression inventory for psychogeriatric patients]

An interview-based assessment tool was developed to evaluate the mood of cognitively impaired psychogeriatric patients. The rating scale consists of simple questions around 15 items, presented to the patient as printed single words that are in content related to DSM-III-criteria for depression. Using these items a structured interview was conducted with a consecutive sample of 197 psychogeriatric day care attendants (mean age 77.4 years; 91.4% carrying a diagnosis of dementia). Reliability (Cronbach's alpha) over the 15 items was 0.82. A principal component analysis and Varimax rotation revealed a structure of four factors, explaining 56% of the variance and representing zest for life (7 items), nonspecific somatic complaints (3), social contacts and appetite (4), and specific complaints about insomnia (1). Cronbach's alpha of 0.78 indicated that the 7 items of the first component were a reliable subscale. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a model of relative independence between emotional and cognitive variables. The psychometric features and reliability of the depression inventory support its utility for the assessment of positive and negative feelings in cognitively impaired elderly subjects.