title: Evaluating geriatric medical outpatients with the Beck Depression Inventory-Fastscreen for medical patients.
abstract: To ascertain how effective the seven-item Beck Depression Inventory-FastScreen for medical patients (BDI-FS) was in screening geriatric (> 55 years old) patients for depression, the BDI-FS and the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-S) were administered to 33 (44%) male and 42 (56%) female outpatients who were scheduled for routine office visits by physicians specializing in geriatric medicine. The internal consistency of the BDI-FS was high (coefficient alpha = 0.83), and it was positively correlated with the GDS-S, r = 0.81, p < 0.001. The BDI-FS scores were not related to sex, age, ethnicity, or type of medical diagnosis, but were positively correlated with a diagnosis of depression (r = 0.49, p < 0.001) and being prescribed an antidepressant (r = 0.55, p < 0.001). A BDI-FS cut-off score of four and above had 100% sensitivity and 84% specificity rates, respectively, for identifying patients who were and were not diagnosed with depression.
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Center for Aging, Stratford 08084-1391, USA.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Scheinthal
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Steer
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giffin
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Beck
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results