Il Primary Care Screener for Affective Disorders (PC-SAD), un nuovo strumento per lo screening dei disturbi depressivi: Sviluppo e validazione della versione Italiana

Introduction. Depressive disorders are frequent and are associated with increased mortality, disability, and secondary morbidity. However, they are often not recognised and adequately treated. There is a need for valid screeners, suitable for routine use. The objective of this study was to develope an Italian version of the questionnaire 'Primary Care Screener for Affective Disorders' (PC-SAD) and to test its validity against the SCID-I. Methods. We studied inpatient aged 18-65 years, free from dementia and cognitive impairment. Patients completed the PC-SAD shortly after admission, then they were administered the SCID-I within 48 hours by a trained physician, unaware of the questionnaire results. Sensitivity and specificity of the PC-SAD were computed, with the SCID-I as criterion standard. Results. The analysis was performed on 148 patients with complete data. The SCID-I-diagnosed prevalence of major depression and dysthymia was 8.1% and 6.8%, respectively. For Dysthymic Disorder, the sensitivity and specifity were 50% and 96%, respectively. Discussion. The PC-SAD is a brief, self-administered instrument which is suitable for routine use. Our findings provide evidence of the validity of the Italian version of the PC-SAD to screen for major depression, and they suggest that it can also be useful to screen for dysthymia.