Abstract

VEGA-DIENSTMAIER, Johann M; CORONADO-MOLINA, Oscar  and  MAZZOTTI, Guido. Validity of a version in Spanish of the Beck Depression Inventory in medical in-patients. Rev Neuropsiquiatr [online]. 2014, vol.77, n.2, pp.95-103. ISSN 0034-8597.

Objectives: The objective of the study is to assess in Peru the validity of a version in Spanish of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in a general medicine ward. Method: We included 136 patients from a general medicine ward at the Naval Medical Centre (Lima-Peru), and administered them the BDI and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) module for major depression. Results: The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.889. Patients with major depression had BDI scores significantly higher than those without it (26.71 versus 6.79, p<0.001). For a BDI cut-off score of 18.5 or 19.5, the sensitivity was 87.5% and the specificity was 98.21% for the diagnosis of major depression. No patient with BDI lower than 7.5 had depression, whereas all subjects with BDI greater than 24.5 had the disorder. Excluding weight loss, all items had scores significantly high in depressed patients; the items that best predicted depression were: self-discomfort, negative perception of the physical appearance, self-criticism, insomnia, and feelings of being punished. Conclusions: The version in Spanish of the BDI assessed in this study has adequate psychometric properties for the evaluation of depression in patients of a general medicine ward.

Keywords : Depression; internal medicine; psychometrics; scales; validity.

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