title: The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 is a sensitive case-finder of clinically important depressive states in elderly people in primary care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  No depression rating scale has yet been designed to identify all clinically important depressive states in elderly. Therefore, this study investigated the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), a self-rating scale for depression, to see if it was a sensitive indicator of major, minor and subsyndromal depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Structured interviews of 37 people with a high depressive score and an age and sex matched control group comprised of 37 persons with a low depressive score in HSCL-25, in order to compare the HSCL-25 ratings with the Montgomery-Asberg-Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) as well as with the criteria for major, minor and subsyndromal depression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sensitivity for identifying any depression was 94% and the specificity was 94% for HSCL-25 compared to the diagnostic criteria for depressive disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HSCL-25 is a sensitive case-finder of any depressive disorder and may be useful in general practice and for screening studies of depression in elderly people.
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit for Primary Health Care, Vårdcentralen Kronoparken, Karlstad, Sweden. karin.frojdh@liv.se
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fröjdh
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Håkansson
authors.forename: Ingvar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Karlsson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000379:methods; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results