title: Improving early detection of childhood depression in mental health care: the Children׳s Depression Screener (ChilD-S).
abstract: Diagnosing childhood depression can pose a challenge, even for mental health specialists. Screening tools can aid clinicians within the initial step of the diagnostic process. For the first time, the Children׳s Depression Screener (ChilD-S) is validated in a mental health setting as a novel field of application beyond the previously examined pediatric setting. Based on a structured interview, DSM-IV-TR diagnoses of depression were made for 79 psychiatric patients aged 9-12, serving as the gold standard for validation. For assessing criterion validity, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated. Point prevalence of major depression and dysthymia was 28%. Diagnostic accuracy in terms of the area under the ROC curve was high (0.97). At the optimal cut-off point ≥12 according to the Youden׳s index, sensitivity was 0.91 and specificity was 0.81. The findings suggest that the ChilD-S is not only a valid screening instrument for childhood depression in pediatric care but also in mental health settings. As a brief tool it can easily be implemented into daily clinical practice of mental health professionals facilitating the diagnostic process, especially in case of comorbid depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: Antje.Allgaier@med.uni-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Antje-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Allgaier
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krick
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Ansgar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Opitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saravo
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romanos
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schulte-Körne
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008603:Mental Health; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Child; Depressive disorder; Mental health; ROC curve; Sensitivity and specificity