Screening for major depressive disorder in the community: A comparison of measures.

Abstract

Self-administered questionnaires are frequently used as case-finding instruments in community studies of depression. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD) is one of the most commonly used questionnaires, though several studies have found poor concordance between CESD- and interview-based diagnoses. The authors made the CESD more closely correspond to the DSM-III criteria for major depression by adding 11 items to the original 20, and this enabled them to apply DSM-III's diagnostic algorithm to the CESD items to identify cases of depression. As part of a family study, they interviewed relatives of psychiatric patients and normal controls with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and gave them the CESD and Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD) to complete on their own