Early Detection of Major Depression in Paediatric Care: Validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) and the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen for Medical Patients (BDI-FS)

This study investigates the ability of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) and the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen for Medical Patients (BDI-FS) to discriminate between depressed and non-depressed youths. 5.7% of 314 adolescents, aged 13-16 years, from paediatric and paediatric surgery clinics were suffering from a Major Depression according to the diagnostic interview Kinder-DIPS. By means of this gold standard Receiver Operating Characteristic curves, the Area Under the Curve (AUC) and the optimal cut-offs were calculated. The validity of BDI-II was excellent (AUC = 0.93, sensitivity = 0.86 and specificity = 0.93 at the optimal cut-off >= 19). The validity of BDI-FS did not differ significantly from BDI-II (AUC = 0.92, sensitivity = 0.81, specificity = 0.90). For the first time we present cut-offs for the German version of BDI-II and the 7-item BDI-FS that are suitable for the early detection of depressed adolescents in paediatric care.