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The Development of a New Multidimensional Depression Assessment Scale: Preliminary Results
Author(s) -
Cheung Ho Nam,
Power Michael J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/cpp.1782
Subject(s) - psychology , depression (economics) , beck depression inventory , clinical psychology , interpersonal communication , scale (ratio) , mental health , cognition , psychiatry , anxiety , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , economics , macroeconomics
Depression is a major problem for mental health. Empirical studies and clinical observations have shown that the symptoms of depression occur across four main domains—emotional, cognitive, somatic and interpersonal. However, commonly used depression assessment scales fail to address the evaluation of interpersonal symptoms, as summarized in this paper. Therefore, a new depression assessment scale, which aimed to evaluate all four domains of depressive symptomatology, was developed. In an initial analysis, a pilot 85‐item questionnaire containing possible depressive symptoms was distributed for evaluation to experts from different mental health professions, from which 52 items were subsequently selected for the new multidimensional depression assessment scale. One hundred community participants completed the questionnaire along with the Beck Depression Inventory‐II. The results indicated that the new depression scale had good psychometric properties. It was found to be reliable and valid for the assessment of depression severity and symptomatology, though it is emphasized that these data are only preliminary and based on a relatively healthy sample. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message Existing measures of depression are criticized for their lack of interpersonal items. A new depression scale is presented that has a balance of interpersonal, emotional, cognitive and somatic items.