Measuring depressive symptomatology of patients referred to a behavioral medicine clinic: Concordance of self-report measures.
We measured depressive symptomatology of 134 outpatient veterans treated within a Behavioral Medicine Clinic utilizing three reliable instruments with depression subscales: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Derogatis Stress Profile (DSP), and Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Results indicate that although the instruments correlate significantly, they differ in sensitivity to depression and are clinically discordant. The MMPI classified a substantially higher number of patients as depressed than either the DSP or SCL-90-R. The present study argues that the discrepancy in clinical concordance and sensitivity of the three depression scales has considerable implications for psychologists concerned with the assessment and treatment of depression.
Highland Drive VAMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A J
AJ
Goreczny
P D
PD
Nussbaum
L
L
Haddad