What is the Beck Depression Scale and how to use it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It takes only 10 minutes to assess your mental state.

What is the Beck Depression Scale

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) / American Psychological Association Scale of Depression is a test that accurately identifies depression and how severe it is.

The test is a 21-item questionnaire. Each person is asked to choose one of four answer options describing his condition. All variants have their own weight, indicated in points. They are summed up, and depending on the result, the doctor - clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist - gets the opportunity to make a preliminary diagnosis to the patient.

The author of the scale, American professor of psychiatry Aaron Temkin-Beck, was A. T. Beck, C. H. Ward, M. Mendelson, et al. An Inventory for Measuring Depression / JAMA Psychiatry questions based on the most significant symptoms of depression. It happened in 1961. Since then, the scale has been revised twice. Today, the most accurate is Aaron T. Beck, Robert A. Steer, Roberta Ball, William F. Ranieri. Comparison of Beck Depression Inventories-IA and-II in Psychiatric Outpatients / Journal of Personality Assessment latest version, revised in 1996 according to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is a widely recognized international guide developed by experts from the American Psychiatric Association.

How to pass the Beck test

Read the 21 Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) / The Psychological Corporation statements carefully. In each, check the box that most fully reflects your condition in the last two weeks, including today. If in any of the groups it is difficult for you to decide between two or three options, choose the one for which there are more points.

It usually takes less than 10 minutes to complete the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) / Psych Congress Network.

1. Sadness

• 0 - I don't feel upset, sad.
• 1 - I feel sad from time to time.
• 2 - I feel frustrated all the time.
• 3 - I am so upset and unhappy that it seems unbearable.

2. Attitude towards the future

• 0 - The future does not seem scary to me.
• 1 - I started to worry about the future more often than before.
• 2 - I do not expect anything good.
• 3 - My future seems hopeless. It only gets worse.

3. Past failures

• 0 - I can hardly be called a failure.
• 1 - Failures and setbacks happen to me more often than to other people.
• 2 - There have been many failures and disappointments in my life.
• 3 - I'm a complete failure.

4. Pleasure in life

• 0 - I am quite satisfied with life.
• 1 - I used to have more fun with what was happening.
• 2 - I stopped rejoicing even in the things that made me happy before.
• 3 - My life is terrible and there is no gap.

5. Feelings of guilt

• 0 - I do not feel any special guilt towards anyone and for anything.
• 1 - Quite often I feel guilty about what I could have done but did not.
• 2 - I feel guilty very often.
• 3 - I constantly feel that I am to blame for everyone.

6. Expectation of punishment

• 0 - I did not do anything for which I should be punished.
• 1 - I have something to be punished for.
• 2 - I constantly live in anticipation of punishment.
• 3 - I have already been punished for everything that I have done.

7. Attitude towards yourself

• 0 - I treat myself as usual.
• 1 - I seem to have lost my confidence.
• 2 - I am disappointed in myself.
• 3 - I just hate myself.

8. Self-criticism

• 0 - I know that in general I am no worse than others.
• 1 - I see more flaws in myself than before.
• 2 - I know all my shortcomings and criticize myself mercilessly for them.
• 3 - I am one big flaw. Only I am to blame for everything bad that happens around.

9. Suicidal thoughts

• 0 - I never thought to commit suicide, this is not my way of solving problems.
• 1 - Sometimes I have thoughts of suicide, but they are random, I do not plan to carry it out.
• 2 - I regularly think that suicide would be a good solution.
• 3 - I will be relieved to get it over with. I’m just waiting for the chance.

ten. The urge to cry

• 0 - If I sometimes cry, then obviously no more than before.
• 1 - I cry more now than before.
• 2 - I cry almost constantly.
• 3 - I feel like crying, but I can't.

11. Anxiety, nervousness

• 0 - I'm calm, everything is as usual.
• 1 - I feel more restless than usual.
• 2 - I constantly feel nervous, twitching over trifles.
• 3 - I'm so worked up that I have to move or do something all the time, otherwise I'll just go crazy.

12. Loss of interests

• 0 - I am still interested in other people, I have hobbies.
• 1 - I became less interested in what is happening around me.
• 2 - I get bored with other people, they annoy.
• 3 - I have lost interest in everything.

13. Ability to make decisions

• 0 - I make decisions the same way as before.
• 1 - It became more difficult for me to decide something, I often doubt it and would like someone to take responsibility for themselves.
• 2 - Every decision is difficult for me.
• 3 - I do not want and cannot decide anything.

14. Own need

• 0 - I am still needed by others and myself.
• 1 - Something broke in me and more and more often it seems that nobody needs me.
• 2 - I feel worthless compared to others.
• 3 - I am absolutely useless.

15. Assessment of internal energy

• 0 - I am energetic as always.
• 1 - Lately, I have less energy than I used to.
• 2 - I do not have enough strength to do what I have to.
• 3 - I have no strength for anything.

16. Sleep mode

• 0 - I sleep as usual.
• 1 - I started sleeping more or less than before.
• 2 - I sleep a lot more (less) than usual.
• 3 - I am ready to sleep most of the day. Or on the contrary: I often wake up in the middle of the night and then cannot sleep for a long time.

17. Irritability

• 0 - I'm no more irritable than usual.
• 1 - I started to get annoyed more easily than before.
• 2 - I regularly find myself annoyed by everything.
• 3 - I constantly feel annoyed, even when there seems to be no reason.

18. Appetite

• 0 - I eat as much as always.
• 1 - My appetite has changed a little: I catch myself eating more or less than before.
• 2 - My appetite is much lower (increased) than it was before.
• 3 - I have no appetite at all. Or on the contrary: I am constantly hungry.

19. Concentration of attention

• 0 - I find it easy to concentrate on a particular task.
• 1 - Recently there have been some problems with concentration.
• 2 - I find it difficult to concentrate on something for more than a few minutes.
• 3 - I found myself unable to concentrate at all.

20. Fatigue

• 0 - I'm just as tired as always, nothing has changed.
• 1 - I started to get tired faster than usual.
• 2 - I still manage, but more and more often I find myself giving up some of the usual things (sports, meeting with friends, traveling), because I simply do not have the strength for them.
• 3 - I even seem to wake up already tired.

21. Interest in sex

• 0 - My libido hasn't changed lately, everything is as usual.
• 1 - Sex interests me a little less than before.
• 2 - I think about sex extremely rarely, he moved to the tenth plan.
• 3 - I have completely lost interest in sex.

What the Beck Depression Scale Results Mean

Depending on how many points you scored, the Beck Depression Inventory / NINDS CDE might suggest the following.

• 0-13 - no depressive symptoms. Your mental health is okay.
• 14-19 - mild depression (subdepression) is likely.
• 20–28 - moderate depression.
• 29–63 - severe depression. The higher the number of points, the more difficult the condition is.

The key word here is "guess." The Beck Depression Scale is not an unambiguous diagnostic tool of Yuan-Pang WangI, Clarice Gorenstein. Assessment of depression in medical patients: A systematic review of the utility of the Beck Depression Inventory-II / Clinics. It is just one of the key tests that a doctor conducts to detect a mental disorder. However, in order to make an accurate diagnosis, the physician will certainly take into account other factors: health status, the presence of certain diseases, well-being, age and lifestyle of the patient.