Abstract
High prevalence, morbidity, and response to treatment make the detection of dysthymic disorder an important public health issue. We report our experience with the General Behavioral Inventory, a self-report questionnaire developed to detect affective illness, including dysthymic disorder. In a small sample of psychiatric outpatients the instrument yielded a sensitivity of 61% and a specificity of 88% for dysthymic disorder. These results challenge the utility of this instrument for detecting dysthymic disorder in this population.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1980).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.), Washington, DC: APA.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Depue, R. A., Slater, J. F., Wofstetter-Kausch, H., Klein, D., Goplerud, E., & Farr, D. (1981). A behavioral paradigm for identifying persons at risk for bipolar depressive disorder: A conceptual framework and five validation studies.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 381–437.
Klein, D. N., Dickstein, S., Taylor, E. B., & Harding, K. (1989). Identifying chronic affective disorders in outpatients: Validation of the General Behavior Inventory.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 106–111.
Kocsis, J. H., Francis, A. J., Voss, C., Mason, B. J., Mann, J. J., & Swecny, J. (1988a). Effects of imipramine treatment on social-vocational adjustment in chronic depression.American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 997–999.
Kocsis, J. H., Francis, A. J., Voss, C., Mann, J. J., Mason, B. J., & Swecny, J. (1988b). Imipramine treatment for chronic depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 688–694.
Markowitz, J. C., Moran, M. E., Kocsis, J. H., & Francis, A. J. (1992). Prevalence and comorbidity of dysthymic disorder among psychiatric outpatients.Journal of Affective Disorders, 24, 63–71.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self report depression scale for research in the general population.Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. (1985).Structured clinical interview for DSM-III-patient version. Unpublished manuscript, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research Department.
Weissman, M. M., & Klerman, G. L. (1977). The chronic depressive in the community: Underrecognized and poorly treated.Comprehensive Psychiatry, 18, 523–531.
Weissman, M. M., Leaf, R. J., Bruce, M. L., & Florio, L. (1988). The epidemiology of dysthymia in five communities: Rates, risks, comorbidity, and treatment.American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 815–819.
Wells, K. B., Hays, R. D., Burnham, A., Rodgers, W., Greenfield, S., & Ware, J. E. (1989a). Detection of depressive disorder for patients receiving prepaid of fee-for-service care: Results from the medical outcomes study.Journal of American Medical Association, 262, 3298–3302.
Wells, K. B., Stewart, A., Hays, R. D., Burnam, A., Rodgers, W., Daniels, M., Berry, S., Greenfield, S., & Ware, J. (1989b). The functioning and well-being of depressed patients.Journal of American Medical Association, 262, 914–919.
Zung, W. W. K. (1965). A self-rating depression scale.Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported in part by Grants MH-19069 and MH7103 from the National Institutes of Mental Health.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Barr, L.C., Markowitz, J.C. & Kocsis, J.H. The General Behavior Inventory as an outpatient screen for dysthymic disorder. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 14, 337–342 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960778
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960778