UNLABELLED: Depression constitutes a considerable issue in medicine and it is anticipated that the amount of people suffering from affective disorders will increase significantly. It would be useful to have a simple, fast screening procedure which would help detect depression. In four recently published articles a two-question depression-screener is recommended. METHOD: Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, negative and positive predictive values were compared. RESULTS: For four different clinical samples and one sample that was representative of the German population the prevalence for depression ranged from 6.9 % to 18.1 %. Sensitivity and specificity reached values from 72.6 % to 96.6 % and from 56.9 % to 90.0 % respectively. All negative predictive values were high (< 97 %) opposed to positive predictive values (17.8 % to 38.5 %). CONCLUSION: Overall, it seems that the two-question screenings are well suited for the exclusion of a major depression. It is possible that regular screening could further lower the percentage of undiagnosed cases.
UNLABELLED: Depression constitutes a considerable issue in medicine and it is anticipated that the amount of people suffering from affective disorders will increase significantly. It would be useful to have a simple, fast screening procedure which would help detect depression. In four recently published articles a two-question depression-screener is recommended. METHOD: Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, negative and positive predictive values were compared. RESULTS: For four different clinical samples and one sample that was representative of the German population the prevalence for depression ranged from 6.9 % to 18.1 %. Sensitivity and specificity reached values from 72.6 % to 96.6 % and from 56.9 % to 90.0 % respectively. All negative predictive values were high (< 97 %) opposed to positive predictive values (17.8 % to 38.5 %). CONCLUSION: Overall, it seems that the two-question screenings are well suited for the exclusion of a major depression. It is possible that regular screening could further lower the percentage of undiagnosed cases.
Authors: Norbert Grulke; Harald Bailer; Gerd Blaser; Michael Geyer; Andreas Hinz; Gabriele Schmutzer; Elmar Brähler; Cornelia Albani Journal: Wien Med Wochenschr Date: 2005-07