The Gotland Male Depression Scale: A validity study in patients with alcohol use disorder

Abstract

The Gotland Male Depression Scale has been developed to improve the recognition of major depression in males. The Gotland Male Depression Scale was compared to the Major Depression Inventory in a population of male patients treated for alcohol dependency at the Alcohol Outpatients Clinic of Copenhagen University Hospital. The prevalence of depression as well as the prescription of antidepressants were used as indices of validation. The Gotland Male Depression Scale was shown to have an adequate internal validity. The prevalence of depression according to the Major Depression Inventory was 17% and according to the Gotland Male Depression Scale 39% of the patients had a probable or definite depression and should be considered for treatment with antidepressants. The Gotland Depression Subscale was found to be better than the Gotland Distress Subscale at discriminating between patients treated and not treated with antidepressants.

The Masculine Depression Scale: Development and psychometric evaluation.

“…The scale is a 13-item measure rated on a 4-point Likert scale (0 ϭ not present to 3 ϭ present to a high degree). The scale has been validated in a number of studies and exhibits adequate reliability and validity (Möller-Leimkühler et al, 2004;Zierau et al, 2002), although there are some questions with the validity of the presented findings (see introduction). In this study, The Gotland male Depression Scale exhibited excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha ϭ .93).…”

“…Although the validity and reliability of the Gotland scale has been tested in two studies (Möller-Leimkühler et al, 2004;Zierau, Bille, Rutz, & Bech, 2002), the construct validity was tested in an inpatient population diagnosed with depression. This specific population is not conducive to testing the construct validity for a number of reasons.…”

Variability Over Time-Since- Diagnosis in the Protective Effect of Psychological Resilience Against Depression in Australian Prostate Cancer Patients

“…Fifth, although accepted as the "gold standard" in diagnosing depression, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for Major Depressive Disorder or Major Depressive Episode TR (on which the PHQ9 is based) have been criticized for not being relevant to male depression (Cochran & Rabinowitz, 2003;Oliffe & Phillips, 2008). For example, the Gotland Depression Male Depression Scale (Zierau, Bille, Rutz, & Bech, 2002) identified 39% of a male sample of alcoholics to be depressed, whereas the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria identified only 17% of the same sample as depressed. Measurement of depression in PCa patients has not yet encompassed this "male" perspective, and future research using such a perspective would help determine if there are differences in the way that resilience buffers depression when the latter is assessed via a genderspecific instrument.…”

Cognitive–Behavioral Treatment of Depression in Men

“…Instruments developed in this area include the Gotland Male Depression Scale (Rutz, 1999) and the Masculine Depression Scale (Magovcevic & Addis, 2008). For the Gotland Male Depression Scale, good internal consistency (Cronbach α = .86) and adequate external validity (correlation with the Major Depression Inventory = .77) have been reported (Zierau, Bille, Rutz, & Beck, 2002). Good internal consistency (.95) has been reported with the Masculine Depression Scale and significant correlations have been reported between its two scale factors and the Beck Depression Inventory (.80, .36).…”