Evaluating Severity Differences of Depression and Anxiety in Self-Report and Clinician-Rated Measures

Depression and anxiety are core components of the most commonly diagnosed behavioral health disorders. While they are two separate constructs, they contain many overlapping symptoms and are often diagnosed co-morbidly. Many studies have been conducted to test different models of depression, anxiety, and their comorbidity. Another important variable to focus on, however, is how depression and anxiety are assessed. Self-report and clinician-rated measures are two standard ways in which these constructs are assessed. This study sought to address issues related to the reliability and validity of two specific assessment methods for depression and anxiety. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used as the self-report measures, while the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) were used as the clinician-rated measures. It was found that the BDI-II and HDRS, and the BAI and HARS were highly correlated. However, the study found that percent agreement between classification categories of the BDI-II and HDRS, and the BAI and HARS only occurred approximately 60% of the time. Decisions are made about treatment and medication based on the classification categories of these instruments. If these types of results occur in future studies, diagnostically-relevant instruments may need to be adjusted in order to exhibit a stronger relationship between correlations and classification categories.