Self- and clinician-rated Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale: Evaluation in clinical practice

Background Time- and cost-effective self-rating scales of depressive symptoms are particularly Valuable 1501 frequent use in large-scale effectiveness trials The aim of the present Study was to examine the psychometric properties of the French version of the self-rated Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS-S) and determine whether it might complement the MADRS in monitoring depression seventy and change over time in routine clinical practice Methods Sixty-three adult outpatients with a Current depressive episode completed the MADRS-S and were interviewed with the MADRS on two occasions, within a I-month interval Results All patients readily accepted the MADRS-S It showed good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.85 at Time 1, 0 94 at Time 2) Its factor structure revealed that a single component explained a large proportion of variability (47 0% at Time 1, 68 8% at Time 2) Concurrent validity of the self- and clinical-reted versions was good (Pearson's correlation coefficients for total scores 0 81 at Time 1. 0 91 at Time 2) The MADRS-S was sensitive to change over the 4-week observation period (correlation of 0 71 between change scores on self-and clinical-rated instruments) Limitations Generalizability is restricted to Outpatients With moderate to severe depression, and the MADRS-S ability to measure treatment effects needs to be examined Conclusions The present study indicates that the MADRS-S displays favourable psychometric properties and suggests that it might be a valid complement to the MADRS, both in research settings and clinical practice (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved