The beck’s depression inventory 2 scoring is a 21-item multiple-choice self-report instrument that evaluates key symptoms of depression. The BDI is one of the most widely used questionnaires for assessing depressive symptoms. Its development marked a shift in the way mental health professionals viewed depression. The BDI is a useful tool in assessing depression severity but should not be used as a substitute for professional help.
The original BDI (BDI, BDI-1A) and the revised version, the BDI-II, are available in many languages and have been extensively studied in a variety of samples. The BDI-II was reformulated in 1996 to reflect changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria for major depression. This issue of The Behavioral Measurements Letter focuses on the validation of the revised BDI-II in medical settings.
A number of studies have examined the psychometric properties of the BDI-II in medical samples, including clinics in cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, obstetrics, rheumatology, infectious disease and nephrology. These investigations beck’s depression inventory 2 scoring found that the BDI-II is a valid and reliable measurement tool for depression in medical settings.
BDI-II scores were moderate to high and showed good test-retest reliability. The sensitivity of the BDI-II to detect depression was high and comparable with the CES-D. The BDI-II was also found to be useful in distinguishing between people with and without depressive symptoms. However, a cut-off score did not appear to be clearly defined for identifying cases of depression in medical samples.
The BDI-II is a user-friendly tool with simple instructions that can be completed quickly. It can be administered during a clinical interview or in an office setting and takes approximately five minutes to complete. In addition, the BDI-II is easy to interpret because the items are ranked on a four-point scale (with zero as the least severe) with a total summed score from 0-63.
The BDI-II should not be administered to patients with dementia or other conditions that may interfere with their ability to understand and answer the questions. Further, techniques aimed at improving item- and scale-level characteristics (e.g., IRT analysis and factor analysis) could help enhance the utility of this measure in medical samples. In particular, a better understanding of the underlying structure of the BDI-II may help to identify important differences between people with and without depression in different cultures. This information would allow clinicians to tailor the BDI-II and choose the best cut-off to identify depressive symptoms. In addition, the BDI-II can be used to monitor depression in medical patients with chronic diseases by comparing their scores over time. Thus, this tool is useful for both clinicians and researchers in medical settings.