title: Chronic depression: development and evaluation of the luebeck questionnaire for recording preoperational thinking (LQPT).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A standardized instrument for recording the specific cognitive psychopathology of chronically depressed patients has not yet been developed. Up until now, preoperational thinking of chronically depressed patients has only been described in case studies, or through the external observations of therapists. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a standardized self-assessment instrument for measuring preoperational thinking that sufficiently conforms to the quality criteria for test theory.
  
  
  METHODS
  The "Luebeck Questionnaire for Recording Preoperational Thinking (LQPT)" was developed and evaluated using a german sample consisting of 30 episodically depressed, 30 chronically depressed and 30 healthy volunteers. As an initial step the questionnaire was subjected to an item analysis and a final test form was compiled. In a second step, reliability and validity tests were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, the results of this study showed that the LQPT is a useful, reliable and valid instrument. The reliability (split-half reliability 0.885; internal consistency 0.901) and the correlations with other instruments for measuring related constructs (control beliefs, interpersonal problems, stress management) proved to be satisfactory. Chronically depressed patients, episodically depressed patients and healthy volunteers could be distinguished from one another in a statistically significant manner (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The questionnaire fulfilled the classical test quality criteria. With the LQPT there is an opportunity to test the theory underlying the CBASP model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Luebeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Luebeck, Germany. Kuehnen.Tanja@web.de
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kühnen
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Knappke
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.forename: Jan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Kai G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Kahl
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hüppe
authors.forename: Valerija
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sipos
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schweiger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking