title: [Screening for depression -- two questions practically oriented].
abstract: Despite the high epidemiological relevance of depressive disorders in daily clinical practice, they are insufficiently diagnosed. For screening, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force proposed two questions aiming at finding depressive core symptoms: "Over the past two weeks, have you felt down, depressed, or helpless?" and "Over the past two weeks, have you felt little interest or pleasure in doing things?". We tested comparable questions in a representative sample from the German population. The correlations between the screening and validated questionnaires for depression point towards the validity of the screener. Relevant indices are satisfying: For major depression the sensitivity is 72.6% and specificity is 87.4%.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, Ulm, Germany. norbert.grulke@medizin.uni-ulm.de
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Grulke
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bailer
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blaser
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geyer
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hinz
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schmutzer
authors.forename: Elmar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brähler
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Albani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires