RESUMO
UNLABELLED: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) has been translated and widely used in several countries to assess anxiety and depression in general hospital patients with good results. Material-Method The HADS was administered to 521 participants (275 controls and 246 inpatients and outpatients of Internal Medicine and Surgical Departments). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used as "gold standards" for depression and anxiety respectively. Results The HADS presented high internal consistency; Cronbach's α=0.884 (0.829 for anxiety and 0.840 for depression) and stability (test-retest Intraclass Correlation Coefficient 0.944). Factor analysis showed a two-factor structure. The HADS showed high concurrent validity; the correlations of the scale and its subscales with the BDI and the STAI were high (0.722-0.749). CONCLUSIONS: The Greek version of HADS showed good psychometric properties and could prove as a good tool for clinicians to assess anxiety and depression in general hospital patients.