What's the deal with that Goldberg Depression Scale?
Q.What's the deal with that Goldberg Depression Scale from the FAQ? (Now if only I knew which FAQ that was. I can't find it any more, now that I'm referring to it. Never fails!) There are 18 questions you can answer on a scale from 0 to 5. It says you ought to be put away if you're over 15 on the depression test or if you're over 20 on the mania test. (OK, not put away. It "indicates the possible need for psychiatric evaluation.") Well, I got a 36 on the depression scale and a 60 on the mania scale. And that's when I feel down! (So what does that mean? Am I about to go on a murder spree if I this isn't As Good as It Gets and I accidentally go UP from here?)
A.I think averaging is a little unrealistic it doesn't work that way. The test ,from my understanding looks at degrees of mood. Obviously if you are not suffering a particular thing. Zero is the correct answer followed by a little, a bit , lots , OVER THE TOP. Well, I suppose I've modified them a bit, but the point is you can't average a feeling by saying 2.5 when you've already averaged it by saying none, a bit etc. An average of a percentage doesn't work (although my work did try that once at an Area level and because we are a small office we seemed to be WAY below the average eventhough in real terms we weren't.) Don't forget, the test aims to test mania and depression in a general terms. By its very nature I would expect bi-polar people to score higher then me. I can say not at all to a lot of the questions I think that the level is set a little low for safety, but generally I think it works quite well. As Tony says, believe it or not, a lot of 'normal' people could answer Not At All to a lot of the questions. The avowed use of the test is to evaluate the progress of treatment in a particular patient, it doesn't really work comparing one person to another. ie the idea is that you score 60 one week and 50 the week after is good, irrelevant if the patient in the next bed never scores more than 40.
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