Diagnosis of depression in patients receiving specialist community palliative care: does using a single screening question identify depression otherwise diagnosed by clinical interview?

BACKGROUND Depression affects a quarter of palliative patients and is associated with reduced quality of life. Screening for psychological problems at key points in the patients' pathway is recommended but there is no consensus as to how to do this. AIMS The study's aim was to assess the efficacy of a screening question for depression against a semistructured interview in patients referred to a specialist community palliative care team. METHODS Fifty community palliative care patients were assessed using a single question: "Have you felt depressed, most of the day, nearly every day for two or more weeks?" Results were compared with assessment using the validated Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). RESULTS Sensitivity of the single question was 0.8 and specificity was 0.85. The positive predictive value was 0.57 and the negative predictive value was 0.94. CONCLUSION The screening question was shown to have acceptable sensitivity and specificity in a small sample of community palliative care patients. It is likely to be most useful to accurately identify those who are not depressed and identify those patients who need a more in-depth assessment of their mood.