Sensitivity and specificity of observer and self-report questionnaires in major and minor depression following myocardial infarction

This stud, v evaluated screening abilities of self-report questionnaires fo r depression in first myocardial infarction (MI) patients. One month post-M I, 206 patients with first MI were screened for major and minor depression using the 90-item Symptom Check List (SCL-90), the Beck Depression Inventor y (BDI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV criteria was used as the gold standard. Sensitivity and specifi city! for different cutoff points. using relative operating characteristics curves, were assessed. The internal consistency for all scales was good. W hen screening for major and minor depression, the optimal cutoff scores are lower than those for screening major depression only. The SCL-90, BDI, HAD S, and Ham-D proved to have acceptable abilities for screening post-MI majo r and minor depression.