CHILDRENS DEPRESSION RATING-SCALE - REVISED - DEVELOPMENT OF A SHORT-FORM

Assessed 228 adolescent psychiatric inpatients using the Children's De pression Rating Scale (CDRS-R). Because the CDRS-R requires a lengthy administration procedure and contains several items not specific to de pression in adolescents, the present study was designed to develop a s hort form of the CDRS-R that included questions assessing five symptom s of depression: dysphoric mood, anhedonia, social withdrawal, low sel f-esteem, and fatigue. Results showed that the CDRS-R short form was c orrelated with other measures of depression severity. Also, group comp arisons supported the validity of the short form. Although not suitabl e for use as a diagnostic instrument, the CDRS-R short form provides a n efficient means of assessing depression severity in both research an d clinical settings.