SCREENING FOR MAJOR DEPRESSION DISORDERS IN MEDICAL INPATIENTS WITH THE BECK-DEPRESSION-INVENTORY FOR PRIMARY-CARE

To ascertain how effective the Beck Depression Inventory for Primary C are (BDI-PC) was for differentiating medical inpatients who were and w ere not diagnosed with DSM-IV major depression disorders (MDD)), this 7-item self-report instrument composed of cognitive and affective symp toms was administered to 50 medical inpatients along with the Depressi on subscale (HDS) from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigm ond & Snaith, 1983,. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 361-370). The Mood Module from the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (Spi tzer et al., 1995, Prime MD instruction manual updated for DSM-IV) was used to diagnose MDD. The internal consistency of the BDI-PC was high (alpha = 0.86), and it was moderately correlated with the HDS (r = 0. 62, P < 0.001). The BDI-PC was not significantly correlated with sex, age, ethnicity, or type of medical diagnosis. A BDI-PC cut-off score o f 4 and above yielded the maximum clinical efficiency with both 82% se nsitivity and specificity rates. The clinical utility of the BDI-PC fo r identifying medical inpatients who should be evaluated for MDD is di scussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.