The differentiation between depressive and anxious adolescent females and controls by behavioural self-rating scales.
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to validate the ability of frequently used self-assessment scales in Swedish child and adolescent psychiatric practice to differentiate between adolescent girls with manifest anxiety disorders and depression from those with less severe symptoms.


METHODS
The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated for Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), the emotional subscale (SDQ-em), the impact score and the total difficulties score of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Sense of Coherence (SOC) in a sample of 73 adolescent, female patients, diagnosed with one or several anxiety disorders and/or depression. ROC was also calculated for 66 age-matched controls.


RESULTS
SOC and the SDQ-em showed the best ability to differentiate cases of anxiety disorders and/ or depression from non-cases. SOC and SDQ-em had an equivalent ability to differentiate depression from non-cases compared to the specialised scales for depression, BDI and HAD-dep. SOC and SDQ-em were significantly better in differentiating cases of anxiety from non-cases than the specialised scales BAI and HAD-anx. Selection bias and several forms to fill in can have influenced the result.


CONCLUSIONS
SOC and SDQ-em seemed to be valid tools for identifying girls with anxiety disorders and depression. This is of clinical importance since self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression show a major increase in adolescent girls and methods to identify those in need of treatment are needed.
Blom
Eva Henje
EH
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, and Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. eva.henjeblom@ki.se
Larsson
Jan-Olov
JO
Serlachius
Eva
E
Ingvar
Martin
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D013557:Switzerland