A study of the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory‐II, the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample from a healthy population

The objective of this study is to evaluate internal consistency and psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Beck Depression inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) for screening for major depressive episode (MDE) in a selected sample from a healthy population. Participants answered the BDI-II and the HADS questionnaires and were interviewed with MADRS. The Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV Axis I Disorders-Clinician Version (SCID-CV) was used to diagnose MDE. Current MDE was diagnosed in 20 (6%) of the 357 participants. All three scales including the depression sub-scale for HADS had high area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) (AUC) (0.84-0.87), and internal consistency was also high for all scales (0.75-0.89). Optimal cut-off for MDE was ≥ 12 for BDI-II, MADRS ≥ 8, HADS total ≥ 9, and HADS-D ≥ 4, which all resulted in sensitivities = 85% and specificities > 78%. Diagnostic accuracy was low on all depression scales (Cohen's kappa = 0.20-0.40). Reports of the properties of depression scales in a healthy population are limited. We found BDI-II, HADS and MADRS to be acceptable as screening instruments for MDE in a selected sample from healthy population with recommend cut-offs as mentioned above.