Publication
Title
Is the geriatric depression scale a reliable screening tool for depressive symptoms in elderly patients with cognitive impairment?
Author
Abstract
Objective To determine the reliability of the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) for the screening of depressive symptoms in dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) as the gold standard. Methods Diagnosed according to strictly applied clinical diagnostic criteria, patients with MCI (n = 156) and probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n = 247) were included. GDS-30, CSDD, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Global Deterioration Scale were assessed in all patients at inclusion. The AD group was divided in three subgroups: mild AD (MMSE18) (n = 117), moderate AD (MMSE< 18 and 10) (n = 89) and severe AD (MMSE<10) (n = 38). Results In MCI patients, moderate but highly significant correlations were found between GDS-30 and CSDD scores (Pearson: r = 0.565; p < 0.001). In mildly (r = 0.294; p = 0.001), moderately (r = 0.273; p = 0.010) and severely (r = 0.348; p = 0.032) affected AD patients, only weak correlations between GDS-30 and CSDD scores were calculated. ROC curve analysis showed that sensitivity and specificity values of respectively 95% and 67% were achieved when a GDS-30 cut-off score of 8 was applied in MCI patients. In AD patients, too low sensitivity and specificity values did not allow selecting an optimal cut-off score by means of ROC curve analysis. Conclusion Using the CSDD as gold standard, we demonstrated that the GDS-30 is a reliable screening tool for depressive symptoms in MCI but not in AD patients.
Language
English
Source (journal)
International journal of geriatric psychiatry: a journal of the psychiatry of late life and allied sciences. - Chichester
Publication
Chichester : 2009
ISSN
0885-6230
DOI
10.1002/GPS.2154
Volume/pages
24 :6 (2009) , p. 556-562
ISI
000266674900002
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.01.2009
Last edited 25.05.2022
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