Criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in a population sample from an American Indian village.

The criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is examined in 120 adult Northwest Coast American Indians. The criterion was a DSM-III-R diagnosis derived from the Lifetime version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Sensitivity for major depression was 100% (95% confidence limits 36%, 100%); specificity was 82.1% (75.1%; 89%). For a broad category of depressive disorders (n = 9), sensitivity was 77.8% and specificity was 84.7%. Cut points based on receiver operating characteristic analyses did not greatly improve the performance of the CES-D. The use of factor scores instead of total scores made little difference.