Cross Cultural Studies on the Use of CPRS in English and Swedish Depressed Patients

54 English and 52 Swedish patients suffering from primary depressive illness were rated on the full 65 item CPRS scale to examine cross cultural differences. The correlation of the frequencies of items scored in the different patient samples was highly significant (r = 0.88). Of the most commonly scored items (occurring in more than 70% of any of the patient groups) 17 were common to both samples. The three items not in common for the two centres are compared and discussed. The inter rater reliabilities of the Swedish and English teams are compared alongside the inter rater reliabilities of a Swedish rater and an English rater on English patients and are generally good. The remarkable similarity of the psychopathology of primary depressive illness in both cultures and some of the implications are discussed.