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Abstract
Introduction
Depression is a frequent symptom among cancer patients but is rarely identified. The Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale (BEDS) is widely used within the United Kingdom to screen for depression among patients with advanced cancer, but its use elsewhere is limited by the lack of appropriate translations. We translated the BEDS into French and then validated the translated version with and assessed its acceptability by cancer patients in France.
Methods
We used back-to-back translation and standard European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer procedures to translate the BEDS into French. The French version was validated against Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) semi-structured psychiatric interviews with 48 patients with advanced cancer who were admitted to a palliative care unit. Acceptability was determined with these inpatients and with 95 outpatients at a Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Results
Among inpatients, the prevalence of major depressive disorder according to the psychiatric interview was 56.3% and the optimum cut-off of the BEDS score was >6, which yielded a sensitivity of 82.8% and a specificity of 68.4%. Among outpatients, the prevalence of probable depression (BEDS score >6) was 28%. All inpatients (100%) and all but six outpatients (95%) completed the BEDS survey.
Conclusion
The French-language BEDS is a valid and sensitive tool for screening in the case of depression and it is applicable to cancer patients.