A pilot study comparing The Borg CR Scale^® (centiMax^®) and the Beck Depression Inventory for scaling depressive symptoms

Figures & data

Figure 1 The Borg CR scale^® (centiMax^®, CR100) (© Borg & Borg, 1994, 2001, 2017; Borg, 2007, Borg et al., 2010; the scale and instructions can be obtained from www.borgperception.se. Printed by permission).

Figure 2 Scatterplot with regression line for the 50 participants and the overall amount of variance explained (R²).

Table 1 The outcome of the Borg centiMax and the BDI (n = 50). Means and standard deviations of each item measured in cM and arranged in ascending order according to cM values.

		centiMax		BDI
No.^1	Item description	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
9	Suicidal thoughts or wishes	6	16	0.4	0.5
27	Loss of weight	7	16	0.2	0.5
28	Gain of weight	8	14
6	Punishment feelings	12	19	0.4	0.6
32	Not being willing to socialize with friends and family	14	24
30	Difficulty in working	17	26	0.8	0.7
26	Looking horrible/ugly	20	19	0.9	1.0
22	Loss in sexual interest	21	24
5	Guilt	22	17	0.6	0.8
29	Concern about health	23	22	0.5	0.6
7	Self-dislike	23	24	0.7	0.6
14	Worthlessness	25	24
2	Pessimism	25	21	1.0	0.8
25	Being bored	26	23
12	Loss of interest in people or activities	28	24	0.5	0.6
18	Changes in appetite – more or less	28	25	0.4	0.7
11	Agitation	28	25
23	Being a failure	28	25
3	Past failure	29	23	0.5	0.6
4	Loss of pleasure	29	23	0.7	0.7
13	Indecisiveness	29	21	0.7	0.8
31	Difficulty in studying	29	23
1	Sadness	31	22	0.7	0.7
21	Exhaustion	32	27
10	Crying	33	27	0.6	1.0
24	Insatisfaction	34	25
17	Irritability	34	28	0.7	0.8
16	Changes in sleeping pattern – more or less	35	30	0.9	1.0
19	Concentration difficulty	35	28
8	Self-criticalness	36	25	1.1	0.9
15	Loss of energy	40	31
20	Tiredness or Fatigue	44	28	1.0	0.8

Note: No¹ = Numbers according to the order items appeared with the centiMax scale.

Figure 3 A symptom profile for centiMax ratings of the intensity of depressive symptoms for two persons with the same BDI scores (28 points, moderate depression) and similar mean on the Borg centiMax Scale (Subj 1, full line, m = 43 cM, Subj 2, dashed line, m = 40 cM). The vertical line at 50 cM denotes a “Strong” feeling of the symptom (see Figure 1).

Figure 4 A symptom profile for depression measured with BDI (same two persons as in Figure 3). Note that the categories on the BDI Likert scale (0–3) are not necessarily perceptually equivalent for different symptoms.

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