Use of Nonsomatic Symptoms to Differentiate Clinically Depressed and Nondepressed Hospitalized Patients with Chronic Medical Illnesses

Abstract

The differential sensitivity of the Depression subscale scores of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Cognitive-Affective subscale scores of the revised Beck Depression Inventory were compared for 21 chronic medically ill hospitalized patients with DSM-III—R unipolar depressive disorders and 54 hospitalized medically ill patients without a comorbid psychiatric disorder. Both subscales significantly differentiated these two types of patients beyond the .001 level and yielded comparable effect sizes. The Cognitive-Affective subscale detected clinical depression as well as a specialized self-report measure.