THE BECK-DEPRESSION-INVENTORY - IS IT A SUITABLE MEASURE OF DEPRESSION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Objective: This study examined the relationship between Beck Depressio n inventory (BDI) scores and current diagnosis of depression, based on The Structured Clinical interview for DSM-IV Diagnosis (SCID). Design : Correlation. Setting: Community-based sample. Participants: 100 indi viduals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) participated in this study, 25 of whom were diagnosed as depressed and 75 as not depressed at the time of interview. Main Outcome Measures: BDI scores, number of sympto ms reported on a symptom checklist and DSM-IV diagnosis of depression. Results: BDI symptoms correlated significantly with the SCID diagnosi s of depression (r = .30) but were more strongly related (r = .67) to the number of non-depression-related problems reported, using the TIRR Symptom Checklist, a list of symptoms frequently found post TBI. The BDI had low sensitivity for discriminating depressed from nondepressed individuals (sensitivity = 36% when specificity was set at 80%). Thes e results suggest that for individuals with TBI, high BDI scores may r eflect hyperreactivity to post-TDI symptoms to a greater extent than c linical depression. Conclusions: Further study is needed to (1) unders tand the physiological! functional, and psychosocial factors that are associated with depression in individuals with TBI; (2) provide the ba sis for developing better measures of depression; and (3) understand h ow depression is experienced after TBI.