The DEP-6: A Brief Multi-Diagnostic Measure of Depression
- 1 School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia
Abstract
The background to this paper is that current measures of depression are unsatisfactory because they fail to distinguish between different types of depression, notably those that are biologically caused and require medication versus the more common reactive type of depression that is treatable, if necessary, by a psychologist. The first part of the paper, aimed mainly at researchers, criticizes the major measures of depression in use at present. The second part of the paper, aimed mainly at practitioners, offers a new multi-diagnostic depression measure called the DEP-6, an efficient 6-item clinician-rated questionnaire which enables the clinician to distinguish the patient’s primary type of depression and choose an appropriate first line of treatment. The present author developed the DEP-6 by using the DSM-5 to identify the core symptoms of each of the main types of depression and closely related disorders. Specific combinations of the core symptoms enable the clinician to make a primary diagnosis of psychosis, bipolar disorder, biological depression, or reactive depression, or to conclude that no clinical depression is present. The DEP-6 is freely available in this article and can be easily translated into other languages.
- American Psychiatric Association (1980). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IIITM (3rd ed.). American Psychiatric Association.
- American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-VTM (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
- Bagby, R. M., Ryder, A. G., Schuller, D. R., & Marshall, M. B. (2004). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale: Has the Gold Standard Become a Lead Weight? American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 2163-2177. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2163
- Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for Beck Depression Inventory-II. Psychological Corporation.
- Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An Inventory for Measuring Depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 53-63. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004
- Chokka, P., Ge, H., Bougie, J., Ettrup, A., & Clerzius, G. (2021). Anxiety Symptoms in Working Patients with Major Depressive Disorder Treated with Vortioxetine: Associations with Clinical and Treatment Outcomes in the AtWoRC Study. Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 11, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20451253211013148
- Coyne, J. C., Schwenk, T. L., & Fechner-Bates, S. (1995). Nondetection of Depression by Primary-Care Physicians Reconsidered. General Hospital Psychiatry, 17, 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-8343(94)00056-J
- Craddock, N., & Owen, M. J. (2010). The Kraepelinian Dichotomy—Going, Going…but Still Not Gone. British Journal of Psychiatry, 196, 92-95. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.109.073429
- DeNoon, D. J. (2008, October 23). 50% of Doctors Prescribe Placebos. https://webmd.com
- Ferguson, J. M. (2000). Depression: Diagnosis and Management for the Primary Care Physician. Primary Care Companion Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2, 173-178.
- First, M. B., Williams, J. B. W., Karg, R. S., & Spitzer, R. L. (2016). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Disorders: Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV). American Psychiatric Association.
- Frances, A. (2013a). Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis (Revised ed). Guilford.
- Frances, A. (2013b). Saving Normal. Guilford.
- Galatzer-Levy, I. R., & Bryant, R. A. (2013). 636,120 Ways to Have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 651-662. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504115