Concurrent and Discriminant Validities of the Geriatric Depression Scale with Older Psychiatric Inpatients

The assessment of depression among elderly persons has been difficult to accomplish. A new scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale, however, has been developed to alleviate some of the conceptual and psychometric problems of other more widely used depression scales among older populations. In this study, scores of 61 older psychiatric inpatients were compared for the new scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. These groups did not differ on chronicity, education, or intelligence. Although there is much overlap between the two ( r = .73), there is also considerable independence. Most importantly, scores on the new scale were a more precise indicator of depression diagnosis than the Beck scores. Finally, the new scale was a better discriminator between two older groups, depressed and non-depressed, than the Beck scores.