Depression Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Depression, including details on clinical depression, medication, symptoms, treatment, counselling, therapy.

Psychological assessment of ICU survivors: a comparison between the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale.

Sukantarat KT, Williamson RC, Brett SJ

Department of Surgery, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0HS, UK.

Recovery from a critical illness can be delayed by persistent anxiety and depression. To identify such patients, a new self-report questionnaire (the Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale, DASS) was used alongside an established instrument (the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, HADS) in those who had spent a minimum of 3 days (median 9 days) in a general intensive care unit. Fifty-one patients were studied 3 months later, and 45 survivors were reviewed at 9 months. High Cronbach alpha values (0.92-0.95) for each subscale of DASS confirmed its internal consistency, and likewise for HADS (0.82-0.86). HADS and DASS correlated strongly at each time point both for anxiety (r = 0.88) and depression (r = 0.93), with few discrepant values on a Bland and Altman plot. DASS performs as consistently as HADS in screening for anxiety and depression, and its psychometric properties support its use in an intensive care setting.

Published 15 February 2007 in Anaesthesia, 62(3): 239-43.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Depression Research Today. All Rights Reserved.