Development and Validation of a Screening Scale for Depression in Korea: The Lee and Rhee Depression Scale

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop a culturally sensitive instrument that addressed how individuals express and experience depression to detect this disorder in Koreans. We also assessed the validity, reliability, and diagnostic utility of this scale (Lee and Rhee Depression Scale; LRDS).MethodsThe sample consisted of 3,697 normal adults selected from 12 administrative districts (Do) and 448 Korean patients diagnosed with depression using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID-I). Reliability was calculated using Cronbach's α. Construct validity, discriminant validity, and concurrent validity were also measured. Receiver-operator-characteristic (ROC) analysis was employed to evaluate diagnostic efficiency.ResultsThe LRDS was found to be a reliable instrument (Cronbach's α=0.95) consisting of six factors: negative thinking about the future, negative thinking about the self, worry and agitation, depressed mood, somatization, and loss of volition. Comparison of LRDS scores discriminated the group of patients with depression from the normal individuals in the control group. The measure showed good concurrent validity in that scores were significantly and strongly correlated with scores on established scales such as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), and the D scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-second edition (MMPI-2). Diagnostic efficiency was 77.7%, and the cut-off scores were 65 for males and 70 for females.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study to develop a depression-screening scale on the basis of Korean patients' complaints about the disorder. As a culturally sensitive tool, the LRDS will be useful in clinical and research settings in Korea.

Predictors of Suicide Attempts in Individuals with Eating Disorders

“…The Cronbach's alpha value for the EDI‐2 is .77–.93 for Koreans (Lee et al., ). The BDI is a self‐report questionnaire that evaluates the intensity of depression (Beck et al., ); the Cronbach's alpha value for the BDI is .85 for Koreans (Hwang et al., ). The BAI is a self‐report questionnaire that measures anxiety symptom severity (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, ), and the reliability and validity of the Korean version are well established (Yook & Kim, ) The MOCI is a 30‐item self‐report scale that assesses four types of obsessive compulsive complaints: checking, washing, doubting, and slowness.…”

Latent structure of the symptomatology of hospitalized patients with bipolar mania

“…Finally, the EFA solution of the present study extracted a specific dimension to explain the variance of suicidal symptoms. This was an unexpected result because suicidal symptoms tend to appear among depressive symptoms [46,34,18,33]. To understand these results, two hypotheses could be raised:…”

“…Gathering manic inpatients for a study is difficult for any researcher. Several authors have argued that the ideal sample for CFA studies is approximately 400 subjects [5,47,18,33]. Therefore, the present study may have been limited by its sample size ( n = 117).…”

“…This was an unexpected result because suicidal symptoms tend to appear among depressive symptoms [46,34,18,33]. To understand these results, two hypotheses could be raised: suicidal tendencies are an isolated dimension in psychiatric diseases and need to be separated from other symptomatology because they could appear because of several factors (e.g., aggressive behavior [39], impulsivity [55], rejection [1], pain [8], and depression [48]); suicide indeed loads in depression and the present study's results are misleading due to the adopted methods.…”

Effects of Community-Dwelling Older Adults’Demographics and Social, Mental, and Physical Functions on Depressive Disorder

“…Generally, depression, one of many psychiatric disorders, has various causes, including sociological, family and mental problems, and may result in the deterioration of physical functions 1) . Depressive disorders among the elderly are related to physical disease, retirement, poverty, social isolation, death of a spouse, and alienation from family.…”