The Geriatric Depression Scale: A Review of Its Development and Utility

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This article reviews the significance of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to practitioners and researchers in clinical gerontology, more than 10 years after the scale was introduced to the scientific community. This report summarizes findings from the most relevant validation studies in which this selfreport for assessing depression in elderly people has been tested. Included is discussion of the use of the GDS with specific populations (elderly medical inpatients, nursing home residents, and dementia populations), with description of the scale's psychometric properties and its utility when used with them. This article also provides data on the use of the GDS from more recent studies, including additional information on psychometric properties, influence of source bias, and the international dissemination of the GDS. We conclude that the GDS is a relevant self-report for the assessment of depression in the elderly, given its advantage over other self-reports that are not as easily administered to this age group, its utility in the detection of depression, and its adequate psychometric properties. However, the GDS does not maintain its validity in demented populations because it fails to identify depression in persons with mild to moderate dementia. Finally, some suggestions for future research are made.Depression in old age is a topic that has produced a great aniount of literature that has substantially contributed to the improvement of the assessment process. The ambiguity of the definition of depression in old age, its differentiation from other disorders (e.g., dementia), and the role that other related factors play in the diagnosis (e.g., medication intake) have been identified as common problems that should be investigated. Difficulties regarding assessment procedures are as important as those previously mentioned. There is a fair amount of literature about the influence of source bias on self-report. However, the self-report (meaning source of information: self rather than informant) is more traditional at measuring depression than other assessment procedures, because the characteristics of depression are largely subjective (e.g., dysphoric mood) (Rehni, 198 8).

The accuracy of diagnosis of major depression in patients with Parkinson's disease: a comparative study among the UPDRS, the geriatric depression scale and the Beck depression inventory

“…The Gds15 had a wider rOC curve indicating a higher discriminative property, and a more convenient approach to the left upper quadrant of the graph than the BdI. Other practical advantages of the Gds15 would be that it is shorter, easier and quicker to fill out than the BdI, none of the 15 items being somatic, and is currently one of the most used depression self-reported scales in the old age 17 . Our findings for the BdI are closely similar to those obtained by Leentjens et al 15 .…”

Active aging is associated with low prevalence of depressive symptoms among Brazilian older adults

“…This is one of the most used screening instruments for depressive symptoms among elderly people. Several studies have shown that it provides valid and reliable measurements [10][11][12] . The original scale of 30 items was described in English by Yesavage et al 13 and was developed especially for the screening of mood disorders among elderly individuals, with questions that avoid the sphere of somatic complaints.…”

Depression rating scales in Parkinson's disease: Critique and recommendations

“…Although it performs well in patients with mild to moderate cognitive impairment, [152][153][154] the data on its validity in moderate to severely cognitively impaired patients are conflicting. 153,[155][156][157][158] The GDS is in the public domain (see, for example, Table 3) and has been translated in many European and Asian languages.…”