Reliability and validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (Full and FastScreen scales) in detecting depression in persons with hepatitis C

BackgroundWe examined the performance the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and its short form (BDI-FS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression (HADS-D) and anxiety (HADS-A) subscales in detecting depression in a group of patients with hepatitis C.MethodsSCID-CV was used to establish DSM-IV diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were used to assess test performance and Cohen's Kappa to measure agreement with DSM diagnosis.ResultsTwenty-five of 88 participants had a DSM-IV depressive diagnosis. There was considerable non-overlap between 'caseness' on the BDI and HADS (Kappa = 0.44). The HADS depression subscale had poor sensitivity (52%) and poor agreement with clinical diagnosis (Kappa = 0.35). The full BDI had a sensitivity of 88% and a Kappa of 0.54 against a sensitivity of 84% and Kappa of 0.42 for the short form. The HADS anxiety subscale predicted depression as well as the depression subscale (sensitivity 88%, Kappa 0.47).ConclusionsNeither the BDI nor the HADS agrees well with the clinical diagnosis of depressive disorder, nor do they agree well with one another. The anxiety subscale of the HADS appears to measure depression at least as well as the depressive subscale.