title: Screening for depression in adolescent paediatric patients: validity of the new Depression Screener for Teenagers (DesTeen).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depression in adolescents is often hard to detect. In many cases paediatricians are the first point of contact. In order to increase recognition rates, screening instruments may be a helpful support for health care professionals. However, there is a lack of valid and economical screening instruments for primary care patients. Thus, the aim of the study was the development of the new Depression Screener for Teenagers (DesTeen) and its validation in a paediatric sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  326 patients between 13 and 16 years old completed the DesTeen and a diagnostic interview, serving as gold standard. Prevalence rate for any depressive disorder (minor depression, major depression and dysthymia) was 12.6%. Psychometric properties were calculated. For validity measures, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for any depressive disorder and the diagnostic subgroups was computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  DesTeen showed a high reliability (Cronbach's α=.87) and a high validity (AUC=.91). For the diagnostic subgroups AUC values did not significantly differ from overall accuracy of any depressive disorder (major depression: AUC=.95, p=.179; dysthymia: AUC=.88, p=.605; minor depression: AUC=.87, p=.327). The optimal cut-off point for any depressive disorder according to the Youden-Index yielded a sensitivity of .90 and a specificity of .80. An abbreviated 5-item version of DesTeen showed no loss in validity (AUC=.90, p=.695).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, DesTeen can be regarded as a valid screening instrument for adolescent paediatric patients. For practical use, the 5-item version is even more promising. A replication of these results is essential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Nussbaumstrasse 5a, D-80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pietsch
authors.forename: Antje-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Allgaier
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Frühe
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosie
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schulte-Körne
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003863:Depression; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D001523:Mental Disorders; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires