Evaluation of a 2-Question Screening Tool for Detecting Depression in Adolescents in Primary Care

Abstract

Eighty-five adolescents (ages 13 to 17), recruited from various metropolitan pediatric outpatient clinics, were administered the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2, a two-item depression screener, along with two other well-established measures of depression, the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results indicated a significant relationship between the second question of the PHQ-2 and the two established measures of depression. Discriminant function analysis revealed that classification of adolescents as depressed or not depressed on the basis of their responses to this second question resulted in correct classification of 73% of adolescents with a sensitivity of 0.48 and specificity of 0.60. The use of both questions resulted in lower classification accuracy (67%) but a higher sensitivity of 0.85 and a slightly lower specificity of 0.51 than either question alone. These results support the use of this measure as a brief screener for adolescent depression in primary care.