SCREENING FOR PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY IN SUBJECTS PRESENTING WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

Background. There is a need for a valid self-rating questionnaire to s creen for psychiatric morbidity in patients with chronic fatigue syndr ome (CFS). This study had the aim of assessing the utility and validit y df two commonly used measures. Method. Scores obtained on th General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) we re compared with various diagnostic and severity ratings obtained via a validating clinical interview, the Schedules for the Clinical Assess ment of Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) in 95 consecutively referred subjects a t a medical out-patient clinic who fulfilled standard Criteria for CFS , and 48 healthy controls. Outcome measures were validating coefficien ts and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) for different threshol ds and scoring on GHQ and BDI and index of definition (ID) as measured by SCAN; and Pearson and point by serial correlation coefficients for different diagnostic groups derived via SCAN and defined according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R. Results. GHQ and BDI perform poorly as screener s of psychiatric morbidity in CFS subjects when compared with various SCAN derived ratings although results for controls are compar able wit h other studies. Conclusions. Neither the GHQ nor BDI alone can be rec ommended as screeners for psychiatric morbidity in CFS subjects.