Data collected with the depression scale (DEP) of the Brief Assessment Scale (BAS) at interviews with 811 elderly subjects were analysed to determine which of its 21 individual items could be selected to produce a short screening scale for depression which would have less than 10 items and a Cronbach's alpha above 0.8. Eight items which fulfilled these requirements were selected to form the Even Briefer Assessment Scale for Depression (EBAS DEP). The validity of the scale was assessed against psychiatric diagnoses made on a subset of 211 subjects. The EBAS DEP had a sensitivity and specificity for a diagnosis of a DSM-III-R mood disorder (depressed) of 0.91 and 0.72, respectively. The EBAS DEP could be useful as a brief screen for depression in busy hospital and primary care settings where a full assessment of mood for every patient is impractical. The EBAS DEP is presented, together with instructions for its use, to enable independent study of its reliability and validity in other populations.

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SUMMARYThe 30-item General Health questionnaire (GHQ-30) scores of the primary carers of 31 elderly patients with depression were compared with the GHQ-30 scores of 30 primary carers of dementia sufferers. Carers of dementia sufferers who lived with their demented relative had GHQ-30 scores almost four times higher than those carers who lived apart from a dementia sufferer. There was no difference in the GHQ-30 scores of carers of depressed subjects living with or apart from their affected relative. Carers of demented patients tended on average to have higher GHQ-30 scores than carers of depressed patients, but this difference was almost entirely accounted for by the fact that more carers of demented patients lived with their ill relatives. Patient and carer age and sex and severity of patients' depression were not related to the GHQ-30 scores of their carers.