Validation of Self-Report Depression Rating Scales in Huntigton's Disease

The aim of this study was to assess the criterion validity of three self-report measures of (depression Ill a sample of patients with Huntington's disease (HD). Fifty Patients with HD completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). and the Depression Intensity Scale Circles (DISCs) Current psychiatric status was assessed using the schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry SCAN). and ICD-10 diagnosis was used as the gold standard Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were obtained and the sensitivity. specificity, positive, and negative predictive values were calculated for different cut-off scores on each rating scale. Twelve patients (24%) met ICD-10 criteria for depressive disorder The depression substances oil each rating scale. Twelve patients (24%) met ICD-10 criteria for depressive disorder The depression subscale of the HADS (HADS-D) at an optimal cut-off of 6/7 was found to discriminate maximally between depressed and nondepressed patients ill this population The DISCs at cut-off of 1/2 also performed well Lit detecting possible "cases" of depression, whereas the BDI-II performed the least satisfactorily of all scale, The HADS-D and DISCs good screening measures for depression in the HD population and the DISCS may be particularly useful in those patients with more severe communicative and cognitive deficits (C) 2009 Movement Disorder Society