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The Leeds Scales for the Self-Assessment of Anxiety and Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

R. P. Snaith
Affiliation:
Stanley Roya Hospital, Wakefield
G. W. K. Bridge
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Leeds
Max Hamilton
Affiliation:
University of Leeds; Department of Psychiatry, 15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds 2

Summary

Self-rating scales are finding an increasing use in psychiatric work. Not only are they widely used in research, but they provide the clinician with a score indicating the patient's psychiatric state at any one time, and these scores if repeated throughout the duration of treatment may be considered to provide a continuing measure of the severity of the illness, as does a temperature chart in a febrile illness. Most scales could be improved by item analysis, and in this study the Wakefield Self-Assessment of Depression Inventory, with added items, was subjected to statistical analysis. It was found that valid scales could be constructed for the measurement of anxiety and of depression in general psychiatric disorder, as well as scales for the measurement of the severity of endogenous (primary) depression and of anxiety states. In addition, the derivation of a ‘diagnostic’ score was confirmed in a cross-validation study and may be found of use both in research and in clinical practice.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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