Geriatric Depression Scale

Last updated
Geriatric Depression Scale
Purposeidentify depression in elderly

The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is a 30-item self-report assessment used to identify depression in the elderly. The scale was first developed in 1982 by J.A. Yesavage and others. [1]

Contents

Description

In the Geriatric Depression Scale, questions are answered "yes" or "no". A five-category response set is not utilized in order to ensure that the scale is simple enough to be used when testing ill or moderately cognitively impaired individuals, for whom a more complex set of answers may be confusing, or lead to inaccurate recording of responses.

The GDS is commonly used as a routine part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment. One point is assigned to each answer and the cumulative score is rated on a scoring grid. [2] The grid sets a range of 0–9 as "normal", 10–19 as "mildly depressed", and 20–30 as "severely depressed".

A diagnosis of clinical depression should not be based on GDS results alone. Although the test has well-established reliability and validity evaluated against other diagnostic criteria, responses should be considered along with results from a comprehensive diagnostic work-up. A short version of the GDS (GDS-SF) containing 15 questions has been developed, [3] and the scale is available in languages other than English. The conducted research found the GDS-SF to be an adequate substitute for the original 30-item scale. [4]

The GDS was validated against Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS-D) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). It was found to have a 92% sensitivity and an 89% specificity when evaluated against diagnostic criteria. [5]

Scale questions and scoring

The scale consists of 30 yes/no questions. Each question is scored as either 0 or 1 points. The following general cutoff may be used to qualify the severity:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yesavage JA, Brink TL, Rose TL; et al. (1982). "Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report". J Psychiatr Res. 17: 37–49. PMID   7183759.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ "Geriatric Depression Scale".
  3. ↑ Sheikh JI, Yesavage JA (June 1986). "Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS): recent evidence and development of a shorter version". Clin Gerontol. 5 (1/2): 165–173.
  4. ↑ Lesher EL, Berryhill JS (Mar 1994). "Validation of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form among inpatients". J Clin Psychol. 50 (2): 256–60. PMID   8014251.
  5. ↑ Yesavage JA, Brink TL, Rose TL; et al. (1982). "Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report". J Psychiatr Res. 17: 37–49. PMID   7183759.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.