title: Use of the Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories for Primary Care with Medical Outpatients.
abstract: The effectiveness of the Beck Anxiety (BAI-PC) and Depression (BDI-PC) Inventories for Primary Care for discriminating 56 primary care patients with and without revised, third edition Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) diagnosed anxiety and mood disorders was studied. The Anxiety and Mood modules from the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) were used to establish diagnoses. The coefficient alphas for the BAI-PC and BDI-PC were, respectively, .90 and .88. A BAI-PC cutoff score of 5 and above yielded the highest clinical efficiency (82%) with 85% sensitivity and 81% specificity for identifying patients with and without panic, generalized anxiety, or both disorders, whereas a BDI-PC cutoff score of 6 and above afforded the highest clinical efficiency (92%) with 83% sensitivity and 95% specificity for detecting patients with and without major depressive disorders. The use of these instruments to screen primary care patients before conducting extensive diagnostic evaluations with them was discussed.
authors.affiliation: Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, Bala Cynwyd, PA.
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine steer@umdnj.edu.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Steer
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ciervo
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kabat