Abstract

Method. A seven-item Self-report Rating Scale for Depression (Ojeda Depression Brief Rating Scale) (ODBRS) was tested 130 times against Beck (BDI) and Hamilton (HDRS) inventories for depression in 26 patients that fulfilled criteria for Major Depression (DSM-III-R) during a five-week pharmacological trial. Results. The correlation between ODBRS and BDI (concurrent validity) was 0.84 (r of Pearson) and with HDRS, 0.69. The correlation between BDI and HDRS was 0.79. Six of the seven ODBRS items had a correlation with the remaining six, ranging from 0.54 to 0.70 (r of Pearson), and a statistical significance (p value) of < 0.001 (internal validity). These preliminary results suggest that BDI and ODBRS could be reliably interchanged. Conclusions. Further investigations with larger samples and more sophisticated statistical instruments are necessary, specifically, multifactorial analysis, in order to determine if the construct validity of ODBRS has more than one dimension