The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and a single screening question as screening tools for depressive disorder in Dutch advanced cancer patients
Supportive Care in Cancer, 01/24/2011
Clinical Article
Warmenhoven F et al. – The aim of this study was to determine the validity of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and a single screening question as screening tools for depressive disorder in advanced cancer patients.
Methods- Patients with advanced metastatic disease, visiting outpatient palliative care department, asked to fill out self-questionnaire containing Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and single screening question “Are you feeling depressed?”
- Mood section of PRIME-MD used as gold standard
- 61 patients with advanced metastatic disease eligible to be included in the study
- Complete data obtained from 46 patients
- Area under curve of receiver operating characteristics analysis of BDI-II was 0.82
- Optimal cut-off point of BDI-II was 16 with sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 69%
- Single screening question showed sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 94%



