Sensitivity to change of the Beck Depression Inventory versus the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders Vol. 281; pp. 338 - 341
• Main Authors: Meesters, Ybe, Sijbrandij, Jitske J., Visser, Ellen, de Beurs, Edwin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.02.2021
• Subjects: assessment; BDI-II; depression; Depression - diagnosis; Humans; IDS-SR; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; sensitivity to change; Surveys and Questionnaires; Treatment Outcome; psychometrics; assessment; BDI-II; IDS-SR; depression; sensitivity to change
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.036

•comparison between sensitivity to change of disorder-specific instruments assessing depression•a head to head comparison of sensitivity to change using the Inventory Depressive Symptoms-Self Report (IDS-SR) and the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II)•BDI-II is more sensitive to change than IDS-SR in measuring treatment outcome. Background: In a previous study which made a comparison between disorder-specific and generic instruments to assess outcome of treatments for depression, the Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II) seemed to be more sensitive to change than the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms- Self Rating (IDS-SR). Methods: A set with longitudinal data from Routine Outcome Monitoring (n=144) were analyzed with multilevel models with random intercepts. The sensitivity to change of two disorder-specific instruments, the BDI-II and the IDS-SR, were compared head to head. Results: The BDI-II was more sensitive to change when measuring treatment outcome compared to the IDS-SR. The BDI-II decreases significantly more over time than the IDS-SR: the average decrease per week for the IDS-SR is -.012 (95%CI -0.015, -0.009) and for the BDI-II it is -.017 (95%CI -0.021, -0.014). Limitations: Conclusions can only be preliminary due to a small sample size. Conclusions: Treatment outcomes measured with questionnaires may differ depending on the degree of sensitivity to change of the instruments.