[The ICD-10 Symptom Rating (ISR): validation of the depression scale in a clinical sample]. / Das ICD-10 Symptomrating (ISR): Validierung der Depressionsskala an einer klinischen Stichprobe.

The ICD-10 Symptom Rating (ISR) 1 measures the severity of psychiatric disorders with 29 items on 5 subscales as comprehensively as possible. The following syndromes are measured: Depressive syndrome, anxiety syndrome, obsessive-compulsive syndrome, Somatoform syndrome, eating disorder syndrome as well as additional items that cover various mental syndromes, and an overall score. The study reports findings on the validity and sensitivity to change of the depression subscale (ISR-D). In a clinical sample of N=949 inpatients with depression spectrum disorders the convergent validity was determined by correlation with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) 3 and the subscale "depression" of the Symptom-Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) 4. The high correlation between the different instruments confirms the validity of the ISR-Depression Scale. The sensitivity to change of the ISR seems higher than that of the BDI and the SCL-90. Because of its economy and the good psychometric properties the ISR is recommended for use in clinical samples.

How does the ICD-10 symptom rating (ISR) with four items assess depression compared to the BDI-II? A validation study.

OBJECTIVE: The "ICD-10 Symptom-Rating" (ISR) is a novel 29-item self-rating questionnaire with scales for the assessment of depression, anxiety, OCD, somatisation and eating disorders and additional items. This study aims at the validation of the depression subscale. METHODS: Based on a sample of 1844 depressed inpatients, the ISR was correlated with the Beck-Depression-Inventory-II (BDI-II). To estimate the sensitivity to change, the effect sizes were also calculated. RESULTS: The correlation between ISR and BDI-II was r=0.79. The sensitivity to change for the BDI-II was d=1.44, for the ISR-depression scale d=1.64. LIMITATIONS: The studied sample shows a higher psychiatric and somatic comorbidity, a lower mean age and a higher level of education than comparable samples from other psychiatric or psychosomatic studies. Although we cannot find any effects of these differences on our results, they cannot be fully dismissed without further study. CONCLUSION: The ISR-depression scale correlates highly with the BDI-II. Being more sensitive to change than the BDI-II, the ISR is a useful tool to diagnose and measure the severity and course of depression.