Screening for anxiety disorders in depressed patients.
The Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) is a brief, psychometrically strong, questionnaire designed to screen for common Axis I disorders. In the present report, we examine the ability of the PDSQ to identify anxiety disorders in psychiatric outpatients with a principal diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Eight hundred patients presenting for treatment were evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) after completing the PDSQ. Two hundred ninety-five patients had a principal diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The mean sensitivity and negative predictive value of the anxiety disorder subscales was 88.5% and 96.5% when all patients were considered, and 88.2% and 95.6% when only depressed patients were examined. The PDSQ's anxiety disorder subscales have high sensitivity and negative predictive value thereby indicating that the scale could function well as a screening instrument in depressed patients.
Zimmerman
Mark
M
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University School of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI 02905, USA. mzimmerman@lifespan.org
Chelminski
Iwona
I
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires