Screening for depression in movement disorders clinic.

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common, though often under-recognised, neuropsychiatric disturbance in movement disorders (MD). OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to establish whether a briefer screening measure such as a visual analogue screening measure (Emotions Thermometer) or Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) could be a potentially suitable screening tool for depression in MD patients. METHOD: Patients attending a regional MD outpatient clinic completed the Emotional Thermometer 7-item tool (ET7), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDIE). We used the Major Depression Inventory which provided the diagnosis of depression based on ICD-10 and DSM-IV as our diagnostic gold standard to compare the performance of ET7 and its individual sub-scales, its briefer version ET4, HADS, and NDDIE. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated to compare the performance of the screening tools. RESULTS: In total, 188 patients were included in the analysis. The most accurate tools as determined by Receiver Operating Characteristics curve were HADS-D for ICD-10 depressive episode and DepT for DSM-IV major depression. ET4 performed well as a 'rule-out' screening tool for both DSM-IV and ICD-10 depression. ET4 performance was comparable to HADS without the need for clinician scoring. The briefer ET4 performed almost as well as ET7. CONCLUSION: Emotions Thermometer and NDDI-E are quick and reliable screening tools for depression in the MD population and are comparable to HADS. We suggest routine use of visual analogue ET4 as it is briefer, requires less time to complete and does not require scoring from the clinicians. It has the potential to be widely implemented across busy neurology clinics to assist in depression screening.

A new way of rapidly screening for depression in multiple sclerosis using Emotional Thermometers.

OBJECTIVE: Depression is a common, serious, but under-recognised problem in multiple sclerosis (MS). The primary objective of this study was to assess whether a rapid visual analogue screening tool for depression could operate as a quick and reliable screening method for depression, in patients with MS. METHOD: Patients attending a regional MS outpatient clinic completed the Emotional Thermometer 7 tool (ET7), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale - Depression Subscale (HADS-D) and the Major Depression Inventory (MDI) to establish a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of Major Depression. Full ET7, briefer subset ET4 version and depression and distress thermometers alone were compared with HADS-D and MDI. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated to compare the performance of all the screening tools. RESULTS: In total, 190 patients were included. ET4 performed well as a 'rule-out' screening step (sensitivity 0.91, specificity 0.72, NPV 0.98, PPV 0.32). ET4 performance was comparable to HADS-D (sensitivity 0.96, specificity 0.77, NPV 0.99, PPV 0.37) without need for clinician scoring. The briefer ET4 performed as well as the full ET7. CONCLUSION: ET are quick, sensitive and useful screening tools for depression in this MS population, to be complemented by further questioning or more detailed psychiatric assessment where indicated. Given that ET4 and ET7 perform equally well, we recommend the use of ET4 as it is briefer. It has the potential to be widely implemented across busy neurology clinics to assist in depression screening in this under diagnosed group.