Screening For Major Depressive Disorder Research Articles

Screening for psychological distress in Japanese cancer patients.

Psychological distress is frequently observed, however, it is underestimated in cancer patients. The aim of this study is to develop a simple battery for screening for psychological distress, adjustment disorder and major depressive disorder in Japanese cancer patients. One hundred and twenty-eight cancer patients were interviewed by psychiatrists and tested using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), a 14-item self-assessment questionnaire. Psychiatric diagnoses were performed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition-revised. Cronbach alpha values of the Japanese version of the scale were 0.77 for the subscale for anxiety and 0.79 for depression. By a receiver operating characteristic analysis, we determined that an optimal cut-off point for screening for adjustment disorder and major depressive disorder was 10/11, which gave high enough sensitivity and specificity (91.5 and 65.4%, respectively). To screen for major depressive disorder alone, 19/20 was an optimal cut-off point with 82.4% sensitivity and 96.3% specificity. The subscales of HADS (anxiety and depression) also had high screening performance. The Japanese version of HADS is a sensitive and specific tool for screening for psychological distress in Japanese cancer patients. This scale can be used for an early detection of patients' psychological distress which may be followed by psychiatric interventions.

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

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

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

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

Points: Is schizophrenia a neurodevelopmental disorder?

<h3>Background</h3> Compared with traditional screening questionnaires, computerised adaptive tests for severity of depression (CAT-DI) and computerised adaptive diagnostic modules for depression (CAD-MDD) show improved precision in screening for major depressive disorder. CAT measures have been tailored to perinatal women but have not been studied in low-income women of colour despite high rates of perinatal depression (PND). <h3>Objective</h3> This study aimed to examine the concordance between CAT and traditional measures of depression in a sample of primarily low-income black and Latina women. <h3>Methods</h3> In total, 373 women (49% black; 29% Latina) completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), CAD-MDD and CAT-DI at 845 visits across pregnancy and postpartum. We examined the concordance between continuous CAT-DI and PHQ-9 scores and between binary measures of PND diagnosis on CAD-MDD and the PHQ-9 (cut-off score &gt;10). We examined cases with a positive PND diagnosis on the CAD-MDD but not on the PHQ-9 (‘missed’ cases) to determine whether clinic notes were consistent with CAD-MDD results. <h3>Findings</h3> CAT-DI and PHQ-9 scores were significantly associated (concordance correlation coefficient=0.67; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.74). CAD-MDD detected 5% more case of PND compared with PHQ-9 (p&lt;0.001). The average per-visit rate of PND was 14.4% (14.5% in blacks, 14.9% in Latinas) on the CAD-MDD, and 9.5% (9.8% in blacks, 8.8% in Latinas) on the PHQ-9. Clinical notes were available on 60% of ‘missed’ cases and validated CAD-MDD PND diagnosis in 89% of cases. <h3>Conclusions</h3> CAD-MDD detected 5% more cases of PND in women of colour compared with traditional tests, and the majority of these cases were verified by clinician notes. <h3>Clinical implications</h3> Use of CAT in routine clinic care may address health disparities in PND screening.