title: The clinical utility of the MMPI-2 in diagnosing unipolar depression among male alcoholics.
abstract: The correspondence between Scale 2 elevations on the MMPI-2 and SCID-diagnosed unipolar depression (major depression and dysthymia) and alcohol-induced depression was evaluated among 106 consecutive male admissions to an inpatient alcohol treatment unit. Valid profiles were obtained from 87 subjects, 15% of whom were diagnosed with unipolar depression and another 4.5% with presumed alcohol-induced depression. The sensitivity of Scale 2 (the probability that a depressed subject would obtain an elevated score) ranged from .19 to .42. Positive predictive power (the probability that a subject who obtained an elevated score had a depressive disorder) ranged from .23 to .38. Neither Scale 2 alone nor Scale 2 paired in 2-point code types predicted the presence or absence of comorbid depressive disorders among male alcoholics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tomah, WI.
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Elwood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008950:MMPI / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results