[Validity and reliability of the anticipatory cognition questionnaire. Study Group ACQ. Anticipatory cognition...

From the cognitive perspective, the inability in order to advance the future positively, it is an essential characteristic in the depression. The Anticipatory Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ), with eight items with a proposal cognitive-anticipatory, has been developed with the objective of detecting cases of depression by means of the screening of the existence of that difficulty of bringing forward.

It have been carried out a multicentric study between Spain and several countries of Spanish America (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Venezuela). For it, a Spanish version of the ACQ was used, agreed between the investigators of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Were interviewed 291 out and in depressed patients (CIE-10), and 158 healthy controls. Evaluated them in four serial occasions (two for the controls), using the ACQ, the Hamilton's and Zung's scales for Depression, and a Global Clinical Impression.

From their outputs seems to deduce that the ACQ has a good internal consistency (alpha = 0.72), elevated temporal reliability (r = 0.81, good screening capacity for depression with a cut-off equal to "7" (kappa = 0.48-0.70), and good sensitivity to change.

Everything it support that ACQ, in their Spanish version, it is an useful instrument for the ends that was developed.