title: The differentiation between depressive and anxious adolescent females and controls by behavioural self-rating scales.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, and Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. eva.henjeblom@ki.se
authors.forename: Eva Henje
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Blom
authors.forename: Jan-Olov
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Serlachius
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ingvar
mesh_terms: 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