Screening detoxifying inpatients with substance-related disorders for a major depressive disorder

The Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen for Medical Settings (BDI-FS; [Beck, Steer, & Brown, 2000]) and the Mood Module (MM) from the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders [Spitzer, Williams, Kroenke, Linzer, deGruy, III, Hahn, & Brody, 1995] were used to screen 100 inpatients detoxifying from alcohol, illicit substances, or both for a major depressive disorder (MDD). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses indicated that both tests were highly and comparably effective in differentiating patients who were and not diagnosed with a MDD; the ROC areas-under-curves for the BDI-FS and MM were, respectively, .87 and .84. A BDI-FS cut-off score of 10 and above had 90% sensitivity and 78% specificity rates, and a MM cut-off score of 7 and above had 90% sensitivity and 72% specificity rates for discriminating patients with and without a MDD. The clinical advantages and disadvantages of both instruments for rapidly screening detoxifying inpatients for clinical depression were discussed.