title: Reliability and validity of a new post-stroke depression scale in Chinese population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nowadays there is still a lack of effective method to evaluate post-stroke depression. To distinguish patients with and without depression after stroke reliably, this study proposes a new Post-Stroke Depression Scale (PSDS).
  
  
  METHODS
  PSDS was developed based on various depression scales and clinician experiences. 158 stroke patients who were able to finish PSDS and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were recruited. Cronbach α, Spearman rank coefficient and Kruskal-Wallis test were respectively used to examine reliability, internal consistency and discriminate validity. Then the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the ability of scale and categorized scales to the range of depression. Finally, the factors of the PSDS were classified by average clustering analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Cronbach α of PSDS was 0.797 (95% CI) indicted a good reliability. The Spearman correlation coefficient between PSDS and HDRS was 0.822 (P<0.001) showed an excellent congruent validity. The discriminate validity displayed significant difference between patients with and without depression (P<0.001). 6/24 was set to be the cut-off value by ROC analysis. Moreover, the different severity was distinguished by the value 6/24, 15/24 and 17/24.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The small sample size maybe the main limitation, the larger sample used in different fields according sex, age and side-lesion was needed to verity the results. The cut off value calculated by ROC curve maybe react the severity of the disease to some extent, but it is not absolute.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PSDS is a valid, reliable and specific tool for evaluating post-stroke depression patients and can be conveniently utilized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital of Southeast University, Medical School of Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Engineering Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Engineering Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Nanjing Ruihaibo Rehabilitation Hospital, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Department of Psychiatry, Nanjing Brain Hospital affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Shining
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University, Suzhou, China.
authors.forename: Aiqin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Engineering Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: qiaowang@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qiao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital of Southeast University, Medical School of Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: yygylh2000@sina.com.
authors.forename: Yonggui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018401:Sample Size; D020521:Stroke / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Assessment; Depression; Post-Stroke Depression Scale (PSDS); Stroke