Validity and reliability of the newly translated Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) applied to Greek outpatients with depression and depression and Alzheimer's disease

Background

Major depression affects about 25% of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has serious adverse consequences for patients and caregivers. Several scales have been used to quantify depression in patients with dementia. The two used most often were the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Previously, for Greek speaking patients, no rating scales of depressive symptoms of patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been available. None were developed or translated.

Materials and methods

To develop a Hellenic translation of the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD), to evaluate it's reliability and validity and to compare CSDD results in Greek depressive patients referred to a neuropsychiatry clinic with and without AD Setting: University outpatient clinic Methods: The Hellenic translations of the CSDD, and HDRS were compared in evaluating 40 consecutive referrals of patients with AD and 40 patients with major depression without AD.

Results

The Hellenic CSDD translated demonstrated a high degree of reliability, and of concurrent validity when compared to the HDRS.

Discussion

These results indicate that the Hellenic version of the CSDD is a reliable instrument, which is able to detect depression in AD patients and to asses differences in clinically referred groups of AD patients with depression and patients with depression without AD.