The Detection of Depression and the Financing of Medical Care

Abstract

To the Editor.— The report by Wells and colleagues 1 highlighted the problem of underdiagnosing depressive disorder in general medical practice. The purpose of this letter is to bring to the readers' attention the availability of a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire for diagnosing major depressive disorder (MDD) that my colleagues and I have developed and validated during the past few years. 2-4 The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD) is a self-administered scale specifically designed to diagnose MDD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III) and the revised DSM-III . The scale takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and less than a minute to hand score to determine whether the MDD criteria are met. The IDD assesses depression with 22 groups of five statements. One symptom of depression is assessed by each group and the statements are arranged in order of increasing symptom severity. The IDD differs from other