The Development, Standardization, and Initial Validation of the Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory

Abstract

Current self-report depression scales may overestimate depression symptoms in medical patients by including items measuring symptoms inherent to many medical conditions. They may therefore reflect a patient's medical rather than psychological state. We present the Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory (CMDI), a factorially derived self-report depression scale that includes Mood, Evaluative, and Vegetative subscales. The CMDI and its subscales were designed to be used separately or combined; we posit that the nonvegetative CMDI subscales are the most accurate means of examining depression in medical patients. In this study we outline the development, standardization, and initial validation of the CMDI, a multistep process that required a total sample of 1,062 adults. We show the CMDI and each of its subscales to be internally consistent, reliable, and valid. Confirmatory factor analysis supports the CMDI factor structure. Finally, we report standardization scores for each of the CMDI scales, derived from an age-, race- and gender-stratified standardization sample of 420 adults.

Clinical features and impact of myasthenia gravis disease in Australian patients

“…It would be worthwhile to use more rigorous screening methods to determine the true prevalence of depression amongst MG sufferers as many of the manifestations of MG may overlap/mimic the neurovegetative symptoms of depression. The direct impact of autoimmunity against the neuromuscular junction on cognition, mental fatigue and depression is controversial [39][40][41]. There is evidence to suggest mood and cognition may be independent of severity of symptoms, as seen in absence of improvement in mood despite abated symptoms after plasmapheresis [42].…”

Factors Associated with Employment Status in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis

“…The Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory is a 42-item self-report questionnaire designed to evaluate depressive symptoms in individuals with neurologic and other medical conditions, including MS. 33 This questionnaire has three subscales: mood, evaluative, and vegetative. Each subscale is represented by 14 words or phrases in the larger questionnaire.…”

A longitudinal survey of self-assessed health trends in a community cohort of people with multiple sclerosis and their significant others

“…The vegetative and evaluative subscales are also useful for assessing mood, but in conditions such as MS, can be affected by disease symptoms. The CMDI authors therefore suggest that the mood subscale alone should be used to provide a measure of depression in such patients [20,21].…”