ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: To determine the intensity of depressive disorder is helpful to make treatment decisions. The purpose of this study is to establish the correlation between the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report (QIDS-SR16) and Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), in order to measure the depression intensity in outpatients from two urban areas in Argentina. METHOD: Over an 18-month period, 67 outpatients from the current clinical practice were included in the study. They first presented with a diagnosis of nonpsychotic major depressive disorder, according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria. Both the QIDS-SR16 and MADRS were administered. RESULTS: The internal consistency of the QIDS-SR16 was acceptable, with the Cronbach's alpha being 0.74. Criterion validity was estimated through the correlation between both scales and was 0.84 (p<0.0001), while gamma statistics for the ordinal comparison of categories was 0.95, thus showing a high correlation. CONCLUSION: The study findings show that the correlation between the two analyzed questionnaires allows determining depression intensity in patients from our setting. These findings further allow analyzing the usefulness of the scale for several depressive subtypes. As far as training and administration, the QIDS-SR16 is less time-consuming.
