The assessment of depression in peri-menopausal women

This paper reviews research methods for detecting and assessing depressive symptoms in peri-menopausal women. The paper is written from the standpoint of clinical psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Problems of method arise in two main areas: (i) the selection of population samples; (ii) the choice of methods for defining, detecting and measuring depression. An important distinction should be made between depressed mood and depressive disorder. Depressed mood is familiar sadness, low spirits, or despondency. Depressive disorder is a syndrome which is much more serious. The failure to make this distinction can detract from research findings. Standardised measures should always be used. These measures may be either self-rated or interviewer-rated. It is emphasised that the choice of these measures should be based on four characteristics: criterion overlap, sensitivity, test-retest reliability, and utility. The scales already available can be valuable provided that they are chosen carefully and with particular regard to these four qualities.