Symptom and substance use reporting consistency over two years for offspring at high and low risk for depression.

We examined 2-year recall of reports of lifetime symptomatology and substance use questions on the K-SADS-E in a sample of offspring at high and low risk for depression. Comparisons were made between those who forgot and those who remembered reports of screening symptoms made at the initial interview. In general, recall for symptoms of internalizing disorders (depression and anxiety disorder) was much worse than recall for symptoms of externalizing disorders (conduct disorder and substance use). Less than two-thirds of those initially meeting the lifetime depression screening criteria provided reports which met the lifetime screening criteria at followup. Significant correlates of screening criteria recall included the following variables (measured at the initial interview): history of treatment for any disorder, impairment on the GAS (a score less than 61), and the presence of hypersomnia and suicidal symptoms (thoughts or ideation). Logistic regression suggested that a prior report of suicidal symptoms (including thoughts, ideation, or behavior) was the most important correlate of screen recall.