Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised: Development of a short form

Abstract

Assessed 228 adolescent psychiatric inpatients using the Children's Depression Rating Scale (CDRS-R). Because the CDRS-R requires a lengthy administration procedure and contains several items not specific to depression in adolescents, the presenf study was designed to develop a short form of the CDRS-R that included questions assessing five symptoms of depression: dysphoric mood, anhedonia, social withdrawal, low self-esteem, and fatigue. Results showed that the CDRS-R short form was correlated with other measures of depression severity. Also, group comparisons supported the validity of the short form. Although nor suitable for use as a diagnostic instrument, the CDRS-R short term provides an efficient means of assessing depression severity in both research and clinical settings.