Psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale with a population of members of a depression self-help group.

This paper reports the psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale when used with 341 members of a self-help group for people with depression. We report internal reliability and factor structure for the complete data set and factor structure for groups split by gender, previous hospitalization for depression and current use of medication for depression. In each instance the factor structure reflects the intended depression and anxiety subscales. We comment on the usefulness of the HADS in studies of cognitive processes in depression and anxiety.