The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: its use in a community sample

The authors gave the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale, a self-report depression symptom scale, to 528 subjects drawn from a larger longitudinal community survey. Interviewers also assessed respondents using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), a structured clinical interview; on the basis of the SADS the subjects were then given diagnoses according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria. The results corroborated earlier findings of a modest relationship between self-reported symptoms of depression and the diagnosis of depression. The authors conclude that the CES-D Scale may be useful as an initial or first-stage screening test.