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Psychometric properties and validity of Beck Depression Inventory II in multiple sclerosis
Author(s) -
Sacco R.,
Santangelo G.,
Stamenova S.,
Bisecco A.,
Bonavita S.,
Lavorgna L.,
Trojano L.,
D'Ambrosio A.,
Tedeschi G.,
Gallo A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/ene.12932
Subject(s) - beck depression inventory , cronbach's alpha , multiple sclerosis , depression (economics) , medicine , convergent validity , clinical psychology , psychiatry , grading (engineering) , gold standard (test) , receiver operating characteristic , physical therapy , psychometrics , neuropsychology , internal consistency , anxiety , cognition , civil engineering , engineering , economics , macroeconomics
Background and purpose Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in multiple sclerosis (MS). Self‐report depression scales are frequently used as screening, diagnostic and grading instruments. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory second edition (BDI‐II) for assessing depressive disorders in a sample of Italian MS patients. Methods The sample included 141 consecutive non‐demented MS patients who completed the BDI‐II and the Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory (CMDI). MS patients also completed a clinical interview, a neurological/neuropsychological examination and a Fatigue Severity Score (FSS) questionnaire in order to assess divergent validity. Results The BDI‐II showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.89) and good convergent and divergent validity. With respect to CMDI serving as the ‘gold standard’, the receiver operating characteristic curve revealed that BDI‐II is an adequate diagnostic measure and that the optimum total cut‐off score was 18.5. Such score identified clinically relevant depressive symptoms in 25.5% of our MS sample. Conclusions The BDI‐II is a simple, reliable and valid tool for detecting and grading depressive symptoms in Italian MS patients.