Beck Depression Inventory-II Items Associated With Self-Reported Symptoms of ADHD in Adult Psychiatric Outpatients

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) and the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale-Self-Report: Screening Version (CAARS-S:SV; Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999) were administered to 371 (64%) female and 204 (36%) male adult (> 18 years old) outpatients who were diagnosed with various psychiatric disorders to determine whether any of the 21 items or subsets of items in the BDI-II were related to symptoms of attention deficits and hyperactivity as measured by the CAARS-S:SV DSM-IV Total ADHD Symptoms scale (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] Symptoms). Stepwise multiple-regression analyses found that the BDI-II Concentration Difficulty explained 30% of the variance in these total scores. Ratings > 1 for the BDI-II Concentration Difficulty item were discussed as being useful for ruling out possible symptoms of ADHD.