CRITERION VALIDITY OF THE CENTER FOR EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES DEPRESSIONSCALE IN A POPULATION-SAMPLE FROM AN AMERICAN-INDIAN VILLAGE

The criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depress ion Scale (CES-D) is examined in 120 adult Northwest Coast American In dians. The criterion was a DSM-III-R diagnosis derived from the Lifeti me version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Sensitivity for major depression was 100% (95% confidence limits 36%, 100%); specificity was 82.1% (75.1%, 89%). For a broad category of dep ressive disorders (n = 9), sensitivity was 77.8% and specificity was 8 4.7%. Cut points based on receiver operating characteristic analyses d id not greatly improve the performance of the CES-D. The use of factor scores instead of total scores made little difference.