Convergence of children´s depression rating scale-revised scores and clinical diagnosis in rating adolescent depressive symptomatology

• Main Authors: Michael G. Koelch, Ferdinand Keller, Nina Sproeber, Joana Straub, Alexander Schneider, Jasmin Grieb, Paul L. Plener
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing 2012-01-01
• Series: Mental Illness
• Subjects: CDRS-R, children, adolescents, depression
• Online Access: http://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/mi/article/view/2672
• ISSN: 2036-7457; 2036-7465

The Children´s Depression Rating Scale- Revised (CDRS-R) is a widely used instrument for research on depression in minors. A raw score of ≥40 has often been used as indicator of depressive symptomatology. As a validated German version of the CDRS-R has recently became available, we assessed CDRS-R raw summary scores of a video taped interview session in two different rater groups and compared them with clinical ratings of International Classification of Diseases (ICD- 10) depression diagnosis as observed by a third independent group. We found that for the German version a raw score between 35 and 40 is indicative for mild depressive symptomatology as described by the ICD-10. CDRS-R scores show potential clinical applicability to deduct levels of depression.