Valid assessment of the clinical features of depression by relatives appears to slip under the RADAR.
OBJECTIVE
We report on the development of an observational measure designed for completion by relatives, the Recent Appearance of Depression Assessed by Relatives (RADAR), and consider its validity.


METHODS
One hundred and one patients with a current major depressive episode had a relative or close friend complete the RADAR, while psychiatrists and research assistants collected extensive data.


RESULTS
Correlated against both patient self-report and psychiatrist-rated depression severity measures, RADAR scores evidenced poor validity overall. Recent Appearance of Depression Assessed by Relatives scores also failed to differentiate depressive subtypes, in that scores for patients with melancholic depression were not significantly higher than for those with non-melancholic depression.


CONCLUSIONS
Results are consistent with previous findings of poor agreement between clinicians and corroborative witnesses in assessing clinical depressive features, and argue against reliance on corroborative witness reports.
Parker
Gordon
G
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales and Black Dog Institute, Price of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia. g.parker@unsw.edu.au
Gladstone
Gemma
G
Mitchell
Philip
P
Wilhelm
Kay
K
Malhi
Gin
G
Loo
Colleen
C
Welham
Kay
K
D000328:Adult; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires